42 THE POST AND THE PADDOCK. 



Hercules, who had nothing large about him but his 

 heart and his aquiline nose. Sam Chifney, Scott, 

 Pavis, Wheatley, Will Arnull, Conolly, Frank Boyce. 

 Nelson, and George Edwards, all of whom rode with 

 him in his last Oaks, are in their graves. Old John 

 Day, whose fine riding was never seen in greater per- 

 fection than when he was in the all- scar let of the 

 Duke of Graftoii, has not wasted these twelve years; 

 in fact, only one of the eight Days takes silk now ; 

 and the shads of George Guelph would be puzzled to 

 find even one of those Edwardses whose numbers 

 struck him as inexhaustible. Harry Edwards has not 

 ridden since the Beverley meeting of 1852 ; while 

 Chappie, who made a grand finish with the brace of 

 great autumn handicaps in 1850, has declined all en- 

 gagements, and does not care to ride except he espe- 

 cially fancies the horse. In his day there was no 

 more consummate judge of pace than Tommy Lye; 

 and perhaps he won more two-mile heat races than 

 any man who was ever out, from this cause, as the 

 lads on the three-year-olds had not a tithe of the 

 practice of the modern juniors, and were sure to 

 " come back" to him in the second and third heats. 

 If it came to four or five heats, Tommy was abso- 

 lutely invincible. His attitude, when he was finish- 

 ing, was not perhaps all that could be desired ; waggish 

 writers, in fact, have spoken of him as ' ' two feet of 

 silk, and three feet of boots and wash leather, in con- 

 vulsions" ; and he also looked anything but pictu- 

 resque as he rode the odd-tempered Italian and 

 Zoroaster one or two races in their sheets ; but he 

 was wonderfully powerful for his size, and his energy 

 on the Duke of Cleveland's monster Sampson, in 

 two four-mile races in one day, quite astonished us. 

 Robinson is now, perforce, only a spectator on the 

 scene of his " short head" triumphs ; but those who 

 were cognizant of his worth, and the heavy sacrifices 

 he made to assist others in the summer of his days, 



