CARDSELLERS, TOUTS, AND AUGURS. 183 



shoemaker in the Commercial road, was always se- 

 lected by the manager of The Life's dovecote to take 

 the Goodwood route on the Gratwicke Stakes and 

 Cup days ; but he was lost in his third season, and in 

 all probability was killed by a hawk, many of whom 

 haunt the towers of Westminster Abbey for six 

 months in the year. 



Old Joe Hayner, who was believed by many to 

 be the veritable "Dog," although a much younger 

 rival announced himself as such both at home and 

 abroad, was till lately the patriarch of racing writers. 

 " Goldfinch" was the signature he generally assumed, 

 and the deeds of cracks past and present were his 

 unvarying theme. When the rapidly-increasing 

 tumour in his throat warned him, one October, that 

 his race was nearly run, he grasped his stick, and 

 sallied forth to bid his old sporting friends good bye. 

 We met him in the Strand, and had a few minutes' 

 chat about Rifleman's defeat ; and then he added, at 

 parting, " I shall never see you again, / just give 

 myself eight days, and then it will be all over." By 

 that day week he had taken to his bed, and in two 

 days more he died, thus fulfilling his last prophecy to 

 the letter. His heart was always true to York- 

 shire : " he loved it," he always said, " for its racing 

 tastes, its glorious hams, and its hospitable hearts/' 

 and for its old recollections of Tate Wilkinson, when 

 that acute Northern Elliston led its theatrical circuit, 

 and descried the earliest dawning of each new star on 

 the York or Doncaster boards. From the Drury 

 Lane Fund he drew a 100 a year, which kept him 

 above want, and he retained his fondness of theatres 

 to the very last The remembrance of his Tyke, 

 Homespun, Fixture, and four or five other characters, 

 will always be green spots in the memory of the 

 lovers of foot-lights. He looked the theatrical vete- 

 ran to the last, and used at times to troll one of his 

 old songs at the winning trainers' Doncaster parties, 



