SIXTY YEARS ON THE TURF 



auspicious day. Of Boyce, as a man or as a rider, I 

 know not how to write too eulogistically. To my 

 mind, over a country he was so far the best of 

 his contemporaries that I should not care to select 

 a second. He was a splendid specimen of physical 

 development, and, singularly handsome ; his manners 

 were charming. 



The big betting centre at Liverpool in 1857 was a 

 place known as Lucas's Repository, and thither I went 

 on March 2 to lay off some, or most, of the money 

 I had on Emigfrant, because I had no faith in Bovce's 

 ability to last the tiring journey under his physical 

 disabilities. We used to gather at a large green 

 baize-covered table, round which stools were placed. 

 All the leading men on the day mentioned were 

 present, including William Davies, Harry Hill, Mr. 

 Wm. Marshall (father of the present Mr. W. 

 Marshall), Harry Dowson (clerk to Davies), and a 

 host of others : among them Mr. Harry Steel, whom 

 I met for the first time. Also of the company was 

 one named Mr. Hodgson, reported to be the holder 

 of a judicial position in India — how true I know 

 not. But, at any rate, his frame of mind that day 

 was anything but becoming the possessor of such a 

 post. I was carelessly sitting on the table with my 

 leg on a stool, when Mr. Hodgson approached me 

 in an insolent and overbearing manner about 



129 



