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A HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH TCRF. 



the classics " a hundred years ago, just as there are now ; but they in turn become 

 conspicuous by this very absence, and I have chosen a few of the most prominent 

 animals in the first few decades of the nineteenth century for illustration in these 

 pages, without confining myself to these races, but largely guided by their results 

 and by my desire rather to reproduce typical instances than to fill my pages merely 

 with portraits that are well known already. 



One of the great " four-milers " of those early days was Earl FitzWilliam's Orville 



By permission of His Majesty the King 

 and H.R.H. Piince Christian. 



" Orville" (1799) by " Beningbrough." 



by Beninobrouoh. He stood over 16 hands, and evidently so impressed H. B. Chalon 

 with his size that that artist has exaggerated his proportions in the painting I 

 reproduce from Cumberland Lodge, by the kind permission of His Majesty the King 

 and the courtesy of Prince Christian. In the St. Leger of 1802 he took the lead at 

 the start, was never headed, and won easily. His courage and wind were 

 inexhaustible, and, in 1807, when eight years old, he won all seven races for which 

 he was entered. This was Lord FitzWilliam's second St. Leger and young John 

 Singleton's first and last, for the jockey died three months later. One of Orville s 



