208 



A HIS'fORl' OF THE ENGLISH TURF. 



have puzzled the starter ; they were Mr. Bathurst's Mrs. Coaxer, Captain Thomp- 

 son's Have at all, and Mr. Osbaldeston's Look about you. Sir George Cook's Run 

 tioiv or Hunt for ever (Doncaster, 1735) is at least capable of rational explanation ; 

 but there is no doubt more than meets the eye of the historian in Mr. Stovin's 

 Why do you slight me (Doncaster, 1737), and Mr. Hudson's Peggy grieves we 

 (Hambleton, 1737). Mr. White's Sweetlifis (York, 1731), Mr. Hodgson's At Him 

 Jenny (Malton, 1747), or Mr. Rickaby's Patch Buttocks (Doncaster, 1731) may have 



By pet mission of Leopold de Rothschild, Esq 



Lord Portmore's "Crab" (1728). 

 By Spencer 



raised a smile ; but it gives one a very convincing suggestion of the robust humour 

 of the Georgian racing lady to find such names upon the cards she read as Mr. 

 Shield's Sweetest when naked (York, 1735), Hell Fire, Kill' em and Eafcm, Louse, 

 Lady Thiohs, and others of a similarly picturesque imagination. In some matches 

 it may well have occurred that a good deal of the fun lay in the name alone ; for 

 our ancestors were more simple souls than we. In 1722, for instance, was it 

 mere chance that Mr. Panton's Twig selected Captain Collyer's Pig as his opponent 

 in a four-mile race for two hundred guineas? And just eleven years afterwards 



