LIVERPOOL 89 



and were once and for all out of the race. The Nun 

 never recovered from the accident, and Lottery was 

 a good deal shaken. A paper called the Aldion, in 

 commenting on steeplechase incidents in connection 

 with Barker's accident, stated that up to a late hour on 

 the eveninof of the accident neither the owner of the 

 horse nor any of his friends had called at the farm 

 to inquire how the injured horseman was progressing. 

 This statement, if true, showed a marked want of 

 humanity, and whatever opinions may be entertained 

 of the merits of modern steeplechasing, it is quite certain 

 that no injured rider, professional or amateur, would be 

 forgotten as the Albion said Barker was. 



The course this year underwent several alterations. 

 According to a letter written by Mr. Lynn, the original 

 owner or lessee, objections were made on the occasion 

 of the first steeplechase at Liverpool that there was 

 no wall on the course, and it was suggested to Lord 

 Sefton in 1839 that it would induce the owners of Irish 

 horses to send them over if a wall formed one of the 

 obstacles. Lord Sefton agreed, but said that he would 

 give Leicestershire horses an equal advantage by having 

 a good ox fence to jump, and both obstacles were intro- 

 duced, though the ox fence was perhaps hardly of the 

 Leicestershire pattern. This year the ground was not 

 in the best of order, and so Lord Sefton, on his own 

 responsibility, and without any outside suggestion, had 

 the 5 feet wall lowered to 4 feet 6 inches, and caused the 

 rail of the so-called ox fence to be made to slope more 

 and thus lessened its height. The position, too, of 

 one of the fiio^hts of hurdles in the straight was chanQ^ed, 

 Otherwise, in most respects, the course remained very 

 much as it had been before, so far as the fences were 

 concerned. The winner, Jerry, was a Lincolnshire 

 bred horse, by Catterrick- — a sister to Jenny, by 

 Bellerophon — and was bought by Mr. Marshall, who 



