390 RACING CAREER OF SIR W. H. GREGORY. 



Payne, ' for a young fellow who had to pay 24,000 

 next day ; but I took his advice all the same, and 

 got back 12,000 when Memnonwon the St Leger 

 in 1825.' ' But how did you get the money for the 

 settling day after Jerry's easy victory ? ' ' Oh ! 

 that was all right,' he exclaimed. ' In those days 

 I always posted down to Doncaster with a money- 

 lending fellow of the name of Hitchcock. Until 

 the St Leger was over nothing was good enough 

 for him. ' Hitchcock, let me give you some more 

 venison - fat ; ' ' Waiter, bring a bottle of that 

 champagne which Mr Hitchcock liked last year ; ' 

 ' Hitchcock, I have kept a fine fat partridge 

 specially for you ; let me give you the breast ! ' 

 It was lovely to watch him writing cheques, like 

 a lamb, when things went wrong. But if the 

 St Leger came off all right, and no money was 

 wanted, the devil a bit of venison-fat did he get, 

 or anything else, except the partridge drum- 

 sticks.' 



" I could tell you dozens of stories of which 

 Payne was the hero. Nothing was more droll 

 than his management of Charles Greville, his 

 life - long confederate. Do you remember our 

 old friend Drumlanrig executing a heavy com- 

 mission for Greville on Adine for the Goodwood 

 Stakes, which she won very easily ? Next day 

 Greville had a great pot, in Muscovite, for the 

 Goodwood Cup, and thought, after Adine's victory 

 on Wednesday, that Muscovite could not be beaten 



