Dick Christian's Lecture. 343 



teenth of 'em. This small-pox took me when I was 

 close on sixty ; it would be just before I jumped into 

 that hole. Well, I'll tell you about that after. I kept 

 my hunter when I was a farmer. I had a little mare 

 for Croxton Park Races ; that was the first horse- 

 flesh speculation I ever had. We used to enter at 

 the keeper's house, and I heard Mr. Berkeley Craven 

 say to Lord Forester, " This little black beggar's got 

 a devilish good mare, and thinks to win the Farmers' 

 Plate." So Lord Forester he comes up, and he says, 

 " If your mare wins, Mr. Christian, 111 give you 300 

 guineas for her before she goes out of the park." 

 But I didn't : they never ketched me till very near 

 home, but she was in season, and she shut up when 

 they collared her. How I did whip her, to be sure ! 

 She did just the same next heat ; but I got 10 guineas 

 for her being second, and Lord Forester bought her 

 that day for 160 guineas. I had other horses after 

 that. I used to train them at Luffenham, on Barreton 

 Heath. I won lots of races at Leicester and Not- 

 tingham ; then I gave up the farm, and I comes to 

 Melton. 



Sir James Musgrave and Mr. Maxse got me to 

 come. I had been there before. The first night I 

 ever slept there was the night before the first steeple- 

 chase that was ever run in Leicestershire mind you 

 put that down. Lord Forester, Sir Gilbert, and Mr. 

 Meynell ran. It was for 100 guineas a side, eight 

 miles, from Barkby Holt to Billesdon Coplow and 

 back again ; no rules as to gates or roads ; each to 

 come as he could. It was a grand race till three- 

 quarters of a mile from home : poor Sir Gilbert ! he 

 got jammed in a bullock pen that threw him last, and 

 Mr. Meynell won. Lord Plymouth was what you'd 

 call my first master ; he gave me 20 guineas a season, 

 and 15^. a time for each schooling besides. If a 

 strange gentleman asked me, I had my pound. I've 

 rode as many as twenty fresh horses in a week, and 



