WELLS AND WOLDGA 231 



added—" Woldga." He said : " Woldga, what is he 

 in ? " I replied : " The Leger only." " Why, he is 

 never going to run, is he ? " exclaimed Wells in 

 consternation. I rejoined, " You had better put 

 that question to Sir Joseph." He lost no time in 

 waiting on the Baronet, who, after giving him a 

 severe talking to for taking such a liberty, prolonged 

 the punishment by taking time to consider whether 

 he would forego the penitent jockey's services. In 

 the upshot the Baronet withdrew Woldga, and 

 Wells rode Queen Bertha, but the lesson was one 

 which the jockey never forgot. 



1 1 may remark here that from the time I first 

 met " Tiny " W T ells, as he was then called, until he 

 (having meanwhile earned the name of " Brusher ") 

 died and was buried in Kingsclere churchyard, I 

 probably knew him better " inside out " than anybody 

 else. Besides being one of the finest horsemen 

 that ever sat in a saddle, with unerring judgment of 

 pace, fine hands, a matchless seat, and a splendid 

 finisher, he was quite " a character." Thirty-five 

 years ago a writer in " Baily " said in reference to 

 Sir Joseph Hawley, " Wells asserts that there is no 

 amount of flesh he would not take off his back for 

 him." The writer of the obituary notice of Sir 

 Joseph in the same magazine, in 1875, says: ''No 

 one else would have pardoned Wells his latter 

 extravagant eccentricities of dress and manner." 

 There is truth in both statements. 



4 Wells was the very soul of honesty, his loyalty 

 to his master was unimpeachable, and his vanity 



