CHAPTER VI. 



MR. TREGONWELL FRAMl'TON AND HIS HORSES. 

 Velociores aquilis cqui iUins. Vac nobis ! qitoniain vastati sumus. 



r I ^HE sun of undoubted success in Racing has cast a broad shadow from the 

 name of Tregonwell Frampton upon three generations of the early history of 

 the Turf. Hut when you try to get closer to the substance of the man, you find 

 that very little of authentic record can be discovered. That little is, however, worth 

 collecting, for it is typical not so much of an individual sportsman as of the sport 

 itself, during a very critical period of its development. From the time that he was 

 thirty-four, Frampton had become a man to be reckoned with by every owner of 

 bloodstock; for it was on St. Patrick's Day in 1675, as m y readers will remember, 

 that Mr. Secretary Coventry writes to Whitehall of his big betting transactions, and 

 even compares his bold proceedings to those of Monsieur de Turenne. Our hero won 

 heavily that day owing to the defeat of Lusty, a mare from the well-known stud of 

 Lord Montague of Cowdray, who was not afraid to challenge the King to race every 

 horse in the royal stables against every horse in his own. In the next year, as the 

 Verney Papers record, Frampton ran a match for ,1,000 against a horse belonging 

 to Sir Robert Howard's son, and another for an equal amount at Salisbury within 

 the week. Even the Duke of Devonshire, one of the greatest plungers of that day, 

 rarely did as much as that. In April, 1680, he matched his Race Mare for three 

 hundred guineas a side, half forfeit, against Mr. Ashton's mare at Newmarket. 

 There are some other records of his entries ; but before giving them I must at once 

 disprove the baseless scandal about his horse "Dragon" which must have originated 

 in the matches at Newmarket, in 1682 and 1684. Dragon's portrait has been drawn 

 by \Vootton beneath the keen old face of his master, in the picture I reproduce 

 with these pages. 



VOL. i. S 



