3 88 



A HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH TURF. 



Pyrrhus the First and Mendicant. The next year Jim Templeman scored a record 

 by achieving the double event twice running in 1847 with Cossack and Sir Joseph 

 Hawley's Miami, and in 1848 with Surplice and Cymba. Frank Butler followed in 

 1852 with Daniel O'Rourke and Songstress, and 1857 was Blink Bonny' s year. 



But we must not wander any further from the jockey who roused these memories 

 of a double event which he had himself twice achieved. Francis Buckle was born 

 at Newmarket, where he was baptised on July 18, 1766. He was the son of a 

 saddler in the town, who came of an old Westmoreland family that traced their 

 lineage back to a Lord Mayor of London in the reign of Queen Elizabeth. His 

 parents died when he was very young, and both he and his brother William (two 



years his junior) were 

 brought up by their aunt, 

 a clever and good wo- 

 man, the wife of the land 

 agent on a Yorkshire pro- 

 perty, to whom both bro- 

 thers acknowledged their 

 possession of the high 

 standard of truth and 

 honour for which they 

 were distinguished. But 

 no saddler's trade would 

 do for Frank, and by the 

 time he was seventeen 

 he was not only back at 



Newmarket in Mr. Richard Vernon's stables, but riding in public on that 

 gentleman's b. c. Wolf by Florizcl, out of Fox's dam by Moses, at under four 

 stone, the result of his having caught his master's eye by excellent riding in 

 several private trials previously. Not only did he prove already that he " had 

 a head," but as he grew older his weight did not unduly increase. In fact, 

 it used to be said that " there was nothing big about him except his heart 

 and his nose." He was also known as " The Pocket Hercules," and the numerous 

 rhyming punsters of the period rejoiced over the opportunities suggested by his 

 name. . " A Buckle large was formerly the rage," sang one of them, " A Buckle 

 small now fills our sporting page." He was certainly remarkably strong for his 



"Banker" (with Butler pointing to him). 



