64 KINGSCLERE 



always in a friendly, companionable manner, as two 

 men should whose purpose and interests were iden- 

 tical. When a point of difference did arise, which 

 was seldom, Sir Joseph Hawley was invariably the 

 first to give in. On occasions when the stable had 

 been beaten, it was the Baronet who came forward 

 to sympathise with Porter and explain away the 

 failure before the trainer could find words to express 

 his own regret and, generally, his less plausible ex- 

 cuse. If poor Wells were living his testimony to the 

 memory of Sir Joseph Hawley would no doubt be as 

 whole-souled and as pregnant with affectionate ad- 

 miration as that of Wells's life-long friend and com- 

 rade, John Porter. No one could have behaved 

 more magnanimously under excessively trying cir- 

 cumstances than Sir Joseph Hawley did to Wells. 

 How many owners would have borne what he did, 

 and still retained the reckless jockey in his service ? 

 As to Sir Joseph Hawley's qualities as an owmer, 

 John Porter, than whom no man in the world had a 

 better opportunity of knowing, says, ' He was a fine 

 judge of racing, the very best hand at putting horses 

 together I ever met with, and one of the straightest 

 I ever knew. He played the game — small blame to 

 him ! — like a sportsman. As he himself used to say, 

 "He was not going to take 3 to 1 about any of his 

 horses when he ought fairly to have had 10 to 1." 

 His stud was a marvel. Look at the few horses he 

 bred — seldom more than five or six a year ; and he 

 never had more than ten or a dozen going at onetime. 



