2 KINGSCLERE 



perceived that the boy was ' all for horses.' From 

 Rugeley to Hednesford (locally, ' Hedgeford ' ) is but 

 a step, and we must take it to find the very beginning 

 of John Porter's association with the Turf. Hed- 

 nesford was rough, and an American might have 

 deemed some of the inhabitants rather ' tough,' in 

 his sense of the term, but it was a sporting com- 

 munity out and out. It was the headquarters of 

 an important training district, and belonged more 

 or less to ' the country ' of several packs of hounds. 

 Those who are familiar with the history of the Turf 

 for the past fifty years need scarcely be reminded 

 that for long after 1838 Hednesford held its own 

 among English training grounds, while the country 

 is hunted thereabouts to-day. Alderman Copeland, 

 whose colours, ' blue and white stripe,' were as 

 popular as they were frequently seen in the 'forties 

 and 'fifties, trained at Hednesford, and Walters, the 

 Alderman's trainer, taking a friendly and sympa- 

 thetic interest in the boy, permitted him the run of 

 the stables. Not that John ever neglected, or had 

 any truant desire to absent himself from, school. 

 The schoolmaster was an old-fashioned pedagogue 

 named Brittan, a worthy man and a conscientious 

 teacher, who received a number of the better class 

 of boys as day pupils in his own house at a place 

 called Hitching Hill. John's recollections of his 

 comparatively uneventful schooldays are altogether 

 pleasant. The schoolmaster at home and the school- 

 master abroad were, as frequently happens, different 

 persons. On duty, and after he and kindly Mrs. 



