FKAXCIS BUCKLE AND SOME OTHER FAMOUS RIDERS. 



387 



not the Dukes of Bedford and Rutland intervened. No jockey of his time had 

 been quite so successful, or ridden with so much dash and grace, his style being a 

 combination of Sam Chifney's rush with Frank Buckle's art of waiting. The latter 

 he once even managed to gammon when he was still in his 'teens, over a finish on 

 the Heath, after which Buckle paid him the compliment of telling him to " try that 

 on somebody else next time." Such was his skill in the saddle that while Cobweb 

 was running for the Oaks, and the gag she was wearing got entangled with her bit, 

 Jem leant forward, took it off, and won. His accident when riding Lord Clifden's 

 two-year-old, Feramorz, in a match at Newmarket, when he broke his thigh, no 

 doubt contributed towards shortening his life, for he had never taken as much 

 thought for his own morrow as for his employers' horses. But 

 his prowess will live in one of the best poems ever written about 

 the English Turf, for it was his fine finish on Mr. Petre's 

 Matilda against Sam Chifney in 1827 that inspired Sir Francis 

 Hastings Doyle to write the most spirited stanzas on the 

 St. Leger ever penned. At the time Doyle was an Eton boy 

 on a visit to Sir William Cooke, and got knocked off his pony 

 by the branch of a tree on his way to the course, but he arrived, 

 and "The Doncaster St. Leger" was the result. Matilda 

 made the running, but Mameluke crept up inch by inch : 



; He's sixth he's fifth he's fourth he's third, 

 And on, like some glancing meteor-flame 

 The stride of the Derby winner came. . . 

 One other bound once more 'tis done ; 

 Right up to her the horse has run, 

 And head to head and stride for stride, 

 Newmarket's hope and Yorkshire's pride, 

 Like horses harnessed side by side, 



Are struggling to the goal. . . . 



He's beat ! he's beat ! by heaven the mare ! 



Just on the post, her spirit rare, 



When Hope herself might well despair ; 



When Time had not a breath to spare ; 



With bird-like dash shoots clean away, 



And by half a length has gained the day." 



It may be doubted whether Jem Robinson ever valued any of his subsequent 

 triumphs quite so highly as that " treble event" of 1824 which was completed by 

 his marriage. The next jockey to carry off both Derby and Oaks in the same 

 year was James Chappie, who won the first on Mr. Sadler's Dangerous, and the 

 second on Sir Mark Wood's Vespa in 1833. Chappie was great at country meetings, 

 and scored a second Derby on Amato for Sir Gilbert Heathcote, whose colours he 

 preferred when his profession had become rather a choice than a necessity. After 

 retiring once, he came out again at nearly fifty years of age, and won the Cesarewitch 

 for Mr. Payne. Sam Day won both Derby and Oaks in 1846 with Mr. Gully's 



