HISTORIC JOCKEYS AND A ROYAL OWXER. 



367 



when some thought he was a Turkish Ottoman, and others put him down as a 

 pirate, because he wore trousers. But the great lexicographer's acquaintance with 

 him went back to a much earlier period. He was born a Baronet, for he came into 

 the world after his father's death in 1759. His mother stood six feet high in 

 her stockings, and was sister to Henry Thrale. Several times did Johnson show 

 his deep interest in his friend's nephew, both when he was so seriously ill at 

 eighteen, and when he came of age. He even took the opportunity of Fanny 

 Burney's visit to the Thrales to support the proposal of a match between that young 



By permission of His Majestv the A'ing 

 and H.R.ti. Prince Christian. 



A Grey Horse from the Stud of H.R.H. the Prince 

 of Wales (after-wards George IV.). 



lady and the heir, but Sir John would hardly have been a suitable consort, as the 

 Doctor soon found out, and he was scarcely twenty-one before he had got himself 

 elected a member of the Jockey Club, and rode Adonis for the Plate. His skill with 

 the whip with anything from a four-in-hand to a mule cart was such that he was soon 

 known as " Sir John Jehu," and he once won a bet that he would drive both off- 

 wheels of his coach over a sixpenny bit. This skill, added to a considerable 

 knowledge of horseflesh and a knack for picking up the black-legged bays supposed 

 to be suitable to Royalty, soon led to the Prince of Wales choosing Sir John 



