JAMES MERRY 



genial master of Meynell House will agree with me 

 that Mr. Merry must have been hard to satisfy. 

 Of the jockeys who rode for him it may truthfully 

 be written that "their name was legion." We 

 think of Fordham as inseparably associated with 

 the " black and gold " of Mr. Bowes, the " blue, 

 white, and red " of M. Lefevre, or the " scarlet and 

 white hoop, white cap " of the Marquis of Hastings. 

 Then is not the memory of Wells invariably con- 

 nected with the " cherry, black cap " of Sir Joseph 

 Hawley, and that of Archer with the " black, white 

 sleeves, red cap " of Lord Falmouth ? To come to 

 modern times, it never seems to me that Mornington 

 Cannon looks so thoroughly at home as when 

 wearing the "yellow, black cap" of the Duke of 

 Westminster, and one scarcely seems to know 

 T. Loates in anything but the "dark blue, yellow 

 cap" of Mr. Leopold de Rothschild. Yet there. is 

 not a single jockey that can really be said to be 

 particularly associated with JNIr. Merry's successes. 

 From first to last he scored seven victories in the 

 classic races, Aldcroft, Daley, Webb, Custance, T. 

 Cannon, L. Snowden, and T. Osborne each riding- 

 one of his winners, and I think this is a case almost 

 without parallel. He had a high opinion of the 

 abilities of " Speedy " Payne, who won very often 

 in his colours, but he would not put him up in a 

 Derby for fear of ridicule. There is no doubt that 

 " Speedy " was a good horseman, but he was an 

 even finer acrobat than he was jockey, and some of 

 the feats he accomplished were really extraordinary. 

 Some of the most remarkable of these were per- 

 formed in the " sixties " in connection with Cran- 

 bury. This was a very fast horse by Surplice out 

 of llosina, but he developed a terribly bad temper, 

 and was exceptionally awkward at the starting-post. 

 Payne frequently used to dismount him there, and, 



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