KINGSCLERE 



CHAPTER I 



John Porter's boyhood — Rugeley and 'Hedgeford' — 'All for horses' 

 — Alderman Copeland and Walters, his trainer — Tom Ashmall, 

 a schoolfellow — Marlow and Whitehouse — Palmer, the Porters' 

 family doctor — Letter and anticipatory anecdote of the notorious 

 poisoner — Palmer's trainer — Porter engaged as light-weight by 

 1 Honest John Day' at Michel Grove — Horses : Rataplan, Nabob, 

 and the flying Virago, Porter's special charge — Anecdotes of Virago 

 — A perilous journey and an appalling dream — Virago's magnificent 

 double victory at Epsom — Turning-point in a potential jockey's 

 career — Removal to Findon — William Goater and Mr. Padwick — 

 Story of Merry Hart— With The Ranger to Paris — Lord Strathmore's 

 opinion — Fordham's delight — Gardening — Farewell to Findon— A 

 delightful memory. 



John Porter was born at Rugeley in Staffordshire 

 on March 2, 1838. He passed prosperously through 

 the ordinary ailments and perils which beset infancy 

 and boyhood, and with the exception of having been 

 once fished out of a brook, and once missing by 

 the space of a few minutes premature burial beneath 

 a falling wall, he was never at that period in any 

 apparent danger of summary dismissal from the world. 

 John's father, who had had some early connection 

 with the law, destined the robust youth for a legal 

 career ; but this idea was abandoned when it was 



B 



