206 Saddle and Sirloin. 



the noted " Jock o' Fairfield," breeder and owner of 

 racehorses, a leviathan bettor at " the Corner," on a 

 carriage top, or in " any place set apart for that pur- 

 pose," a mighty Nimrod with the Bedale and Sir 

 Charles's, and an " all-round" man as far as any sport 

 was concerned. It was by the side of the Catterick 

 cords that Jackson, who then " whistled at the plough," 

 first learnt to love races, and to risk half-crowns on his 

 fancy. That life, with all its curious and often mis- 

 directed activities, was closed early. Nature had given 

 him a fine farmer's-lad constitution to begin with ; 

 but he had been too prodigal of it, and she had her 

 revenge at last, when he was only forty-one. Well 

 might he say (when he knew his doom) that he had 

 seen more life in his time than most men of eighty. 

 His temperament was, in fact, far too excitable for the 

 stirring scenes in which his lot had been cast for nearly 

 twenty years. 



His connexion with the Turf dates from The Flying 

 Dutchman's year, and it was with the money he then 

 won upon the tartan that he gradually became a 

 leading member and a very Stentor of the Ring. He 

 did not, like a living hero of Earl Winchilsea's lyre, 

 simply take his stand at Newmarket, 



" Supreme upon the pump, 

 Clear his fine voice, and give a warning thump ;" 



but he was ever on the move, a very locomotive Turf 

 exchange. Davis was restless in his day ; but as 

 regards powers of speech, he was a " dumb man of 

 Manchester" in comparison. Be the din ever so loud, 

 Jackson's voice was heard above it, booming forth in 

 quarter-minute guns, shotted to the muzzle with the 

 unshackled Doric of the North Riding, his offers to 

 lay or take. There he strode about, with his betting- 

 book in one hand, and his favourite short stick in the 

 other, and if there was a row or a scrimmage of any 

 kind, he was sure to project himself violently into the 



