110 Sporfvig and Rural Records of flie Chcvcley Estate. 



Saxton Hail. 



'I'regonwell 

 Frampton. 



A Story of 

 Snap - Dragon 

 and Brandy ? 



wliich Mr. l^'rampton niadt- a iiialch, to be run on the first day of 

 the Autumn Meeting of 1712, against the Duke of Bolton's Bay 

 Bolton, for 300 guineas, half forfeit, was the same animal. At this 

 meeting, on October 30, Mr. Frampton also made a match with 

 Dragon against Lord Dorchester's Bay Wanton for a similar stake ; 

 and at the Spring Meeting of 1713 Dragon was matched by Mr. 

 Frampton to run five miles on April 22 against the Duke of 

 Somerset's Windham, 8st. 2lb. each, for 300 guineas, half forfeit. 

 Unfortunately, no results or details of these matches can be found, 

 and no references to these meetings have been preserved, except 

 the bare list of the matches recorded in the Daily Conrant. 



It is impossible to reconcile the circumstances whereby Mr. 

 Frampton and this horse Dragon can be identified with the sensa- 

 tional and absurd effusion which appeared in a primitive magazine 

 called The Adventurer, and said to be edited and written by 

 John Hawkesworth, LL.D. In the thirty-seventh number of The 

 Adventurer, published Tuesday, March 13, 1753, there appears an 

 article relating to happiness, properly estimated by its degree in 

 whatever subject, except (apparently) in veracity and logic, which 

 is exemplified by a " remarkable " instance of cruelty to brutes, 

 accompanied by the braying of an ass and the song of a blackbird 1 

 The writer abhors sport, but inferentially lets out he loves the 

 hoii\e, avK^, in the fervour of his iniaginatiou, "the evening stole 

 imperceptibly away, and at length morning succeeded to midnight," 

 when he fell asleep in his chair. In this condition his memory and 

 judgment being "at an end," "fancy," that "roving wanton," 

 conducted him through a dark avenue, which, after many windings, 

 terminated in a place supposed to be the elysium of birds and 

 beasts. Fearing to incur the " contempt and indignation " of the 

 " birds and beasts," he became an eavesdropper, and listened to the 

 sentiments addressed by an ass to a horse. The horse (which he 

 now calls a " Steed ") next holds forth as follows : 



"It is true 1 was a favourite ; but what avails it to be the favourite of 

 caprice, avarice, and barbarity ? My tyrant was a wretch, who gained a 



