THE GREAT FOUR-MILE DAY. 283 
principal agency in producing the catastrophe, which, 
had it not happened, would have spared me the task of 
chronicling an achievement in turf matters, more re- 
markable than the connection between pestilence and 
the sequel of these pages. 
On the third Saturday (if I remember aright) of 
October, 1822, the Hon. J—— L 
on his way to the Jockey Club Races, on the four-mile 

called for me 
day. He had taken up the impression that a race would 
be a source of amusement and advantage to me; and in 
the fulfilment of a humane purpose, had brought along 
with him an Indian pony, that went by the euphoneous 
name of “ Boots,” given as much for shortness, as 
by reason of the color of the animal, which was an 
equivocation between a sandy brown and a dingy black 
—just that of a pair of boots, which had not received 
the polishing aid of the black for an indefinite period. 
Astride of this epitome of a horse, I made my first ap- 
pearance upon a race-course. I was then only ten 
years of age, and the impressions made upon my mind 
at that time are more vivid than those of a later day, 
and of more important character. 
There were then no spacious stands erected for the 
accommodation of visitors. Upon a mound within the 
circle of the track were collected, what was then con- 
sidered, a vast number of carriages, containing the aris- 
tocratic beauty of the country—though perhaps some of 
the fair patrons of the turf might at this time, or their 
