THE JOCKEY CLUB IN THE DAYS OF CHARLES JAMES FOX. 243 



beat Pincher, and they did. There is a passage in the " Chatsworth Correspon- 

 dence" which has sometimes been misunderstood. It runs as follows : " Mr. Fox 

 returned this morning. He travelled all night and yet won one or two races, which 

 considering his not having been abed, and his size, is doing a great deal." This 

 must, of course, refer to his habit, which was common to many others in those days, 

 of riding in with his horse from the distance, as has just been described ; for 

 neither Pyrrhus nor Tretitham, good as they were, could have carried over sixteen 

 stone. 



Fox used to complain sometimes, good-naturedly enough, that his horses were fast 

 enough, but never cared to tire themselves. If he ever rode them himself such 

 prudence would be 



perfectly intelligible, ^gjjimgm 



but even his un- 

 wearied efforts to 

 reduce his weight 

 stopped short of that. 

 Even with thirty 

 animals in training, 

 some of whom, as 

 we have seen, were 

 well in the first flight, 

 he could not manage 

 to succeed in making 

 both ends meet; and 

 though he once netted 

 sixteen thousand pounds by betting against the favourite in 1772, the net 

 result of his racing which was invariably as honest as himself may be 

 easily judged from the ruin which befell his no less honourable and 

 beloved partner. Lord Foley, for it was with him that Fox ran his training 

 stable, began his career with , 20,000 a year and .100,000 in ready money. 

 He had lost both, and his health as well, before he left the Turf, and he died at fifty- 

 one. Prince, father of a trainer well known in the next generation, trained for him 

 and Fox ; South and Chifney were their jockeys ; and " Nimrod " has put it on 

 record that distemper in their stables was the final ruin of their stud. But these 

 things did not trouble Fox for long. In the year I have just mentioned, 17/2, even 



Mr. Thomas Foley' s " Firetuil" 



