304 STEEPLECHASING 



WILLIAM VEVERS 



ONE of the most remarkable men in the steeple- 

 chase world was Mr. William Vevers of DonninQfton 

 Court, Herefordshire, who, although born in 1782, took to 

 the new-fashioned sport with all the ardour of a young 

 man, and rode his last steeplechase in 1849, when he won 

 at Ledbury on his own horse Vengeance ; and it was 

 after this that George Stevens, who rode The Colonel 

 to victory in the Grand National and who had been in 

 his service, left him. He was the son of Mr. John Vevers 

 of Yarkhill Court, Herefordshire, and, beginning to hunt 

 when quite a child, was a proficient in the saddle by the 

 time he was a young man ; and as he owned in his time 

 quite a number of good horses, Mr. Vevers met with no 

 slight measure of success. 



His first essay at steeplechasing appears to have been 

 in 1834, when he won the Rose Steeplechase at the 

 Cheltenham meeting on his own horse Sailor Boy, not- 

 withstanding that he sustained a heavy fall in the course 

 of the race. Among other horses Mr. Vevers owned 

 the famous Charity, by Woodman, about the best horse 

 Lottery ever had to meet. Charity was purchased from 

 Mr. Williams of Cowarn Court, after having run un- 

 successfully in a steeplechase or two ; but in the hands of 

 his new owner he turned out a great success, beginning 

 by carrying off the Usk Stakes and the Hurdle Race at 

 Cardiff, and the Hurdle Race at Monmouth, in 1836 ; 

 the Aberystwith Hurdle Race, the Farmers' Plate, the 

 Hunters' Stakes, and the Hurdle Race at Hereford, in 

 1838, all at the same meeting; and the Hunters' Stakes 



