THE DAWN OF STEEPLECHASING 5 



in all, and this happens to be the identical course 

 over which Mr. (afterwards Captain) Horatio Ross 

 on Clinker, and Captain Douglas on Radical, rode 

 their famous match, except that they ran one way 

 only. Mr. Charles Meynell was the winner of the 

 above race, Lord Forester was second, and Sir Gilbert 

 Heathcote third. 



In the March of 1792, there took place in Leicester- 

 shire a very curious steeplechase match for the sum of 

 1000 guineas. One of the horses belonged to Mr. 

 Loraine Hardy, and the other the best hunter that the 

 Hon. Mr. Willoughby ^ could procure. The course was 

 from near Melton Mowbray to Dalby Wood, a distance 

 of about nine miles. Curiously enough, with the best 

 men in England to select from, Mr. Loraine Hardy 

 elected to put up his valet as jockey, Mr. Willoughby's 

 whipper-in riding for his master. The betting at the 

 start was 6 to 4 in favour of Mr. Hardy's horse, 

 which won with great ease, owing, as was said, to 

 the excellent local knowledge of the rider. The 

 affair, we are told, created the greatest excitement in 

 Leicestershire. 



What has been called, though in any case errone- 

 ously, "The First Steeple Chase on record" is a 

 very mythical affair, in fact it is almost certain that 

 it never took place ; it must have been a joke on 

 the part of Aiken, who painted the pictures. Most 

 people who look into picture - shops must have 

 noticed coloured plates representing a number of 

 soldiers clad in blue overalls and wearing, in lieu of 

 orthodox jockey costume, night-shirts and conical-shaped 

 night-caps with a tassel at the top, like those worn 

 by our ancestors. These wild horsemen are repre- 

 sented as riding by the light of a brilliant moon over 



^ Afterwards Lord Middleton. At the date mentioned he hunted what 

 is now Lord Middleton's country. 



