THE TURF. 
and was considered particularly to excel in matches. 
He was much afflicted with gout, but when well was a 
fine rider, and steady and honest, as his father was 
before him. Being occasionally called upon to waste, he 
felt the inconvenience of his disorder, and the following 
anecdote is related of him : Meeting an itinerant piper 
towards the end of a long and painful walk, "Well, 
old boy," said he, " I have heard that music cheers the 
weary soldier ; why should it not enliven the wasting 
jockey?* Come, play a tune, and walk before me 
to Newmarket." Perhaps he had been reading the 
"Mourning Bride." 
"A good name is as a precious ointment," and by 
uniform correct conduct in the saddle, as well as in the 
stable, John Day a very celebrated jockey has 
acquired that of "honest John." The endowments of 
nature are not always hereditary, and well for our hero 
that they are not, for he is the son of a man who 
weighed twenty stone, whereas he himself can ride 
seven ! His winning the Newmarket Oatlands on 
Pastime, with nine stone six pounds on her back, is 
considered his chef-d' ceuvre. He resides at Stock- 
bridge, in Hampshire, where he has a very large public 
training establishment, and several race-horses of his 
own. Samuel Day, his brother, is also a jockey of 
great ability, and a singularly elegant horseman, with 
remarkably fine temper ; but he has lately declined 
riding in public. Wheatley is the son of an eminent 
* " Music has charms!" 
151 
