4OO 



A HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH TURF. 



He had the prettiest seat of all four, and must have thoroughly enjoyed himself on 

 Tramp, Blacklock, and Altisidora, and he also had Filho da Puta in the St. Leger. 

 He was an honest, quarrelsome man, and rode jst. vlb. almost to the end, before he 

 left the racecourse farm and took the inn at Northallerton. The rather grim face of 

 Shepherd on Mr. Pierse's Rosette is well known to collectors of sporting prints. He 

 had a fine knowledge of pace, which enabled him to make the running in many a 

 four-mile heat without overdoing his horse. He rode for Sir Thomas Gascoyne, the 

 Rev. Henry Goodricke, the Duke of Leeds, and Sir Mark Sykes, besides the owner 

 of Rosette, and Lord Foley transplanted him for a while from Yorkshire to 

 Newmarket. Some of his finest races were on Sir Solomon, and he sat so bolt 



upright that there was 

 quite a hollow in the 

 middle of his back, and 

 he kept his foot straight 

 out to the point of his 

 horse's shoulder. Billy 

 Pierse, who had the 

 strongest rush of all four 

 of this Northern quartet, 

 began life as " Tom 

 Thumb " in a strolling 

 theatre, and married a 

 wife whose home-made 

 vintage he preferred 

 even to the pipe of port 



Sir William Gerard sent him for winning the Oaks on Oriana, and whose 

 knowledge of housekeeping and general economy was only equalled by her 

 care and love for horses. His short legs rather spoilt his seat, but he was a 

 fine finisher, especially on Haphazard. His chief recreation was deep study of 

 Political Economy as set forth in the "Wealth of Nations," which may have 

 accounted for the fact that he never betted as a rule, though he was not above 

 giving the tip about Borodino to a thoughtful host, and he was proud of the 

 wager the Duke of Cleveland laid him of .20,000 to ,5 that he would not 

 win the Derby, Leger, and Oaks on Manitella, though he was never deluded 

 by His Grace's hospitality at Raby into forgetting that he would not have been 



" St. Patrick" (1817) by " Walton: 



