Mr. William Bevill 



however, was the case, the subject of our memoir making 

 his first public appearance in the saddle in the year just 

 mentioned, when he won a steeplechase at Wansford, on 

 Gerard, by Alarm, a horse belonging to his father. Though 

 the field was numerically small, consisting as it did of only 

 three runners, the fact that the second and third were ridden 

 respectively by such masters of their craft as Messrs. Frank 

 Gordon and Alec Goodman, speaks volumes for the capability 

 of their youthful opponent. 



Out of his six mounts that year, three over a country 

 and the remainder on the flat, Mr. Bevill won two ; the 

 steeplechase first mentioned and a flat race at Bedford on 

 Georgium Sidus, by Meteor. The following year we find 

 him having a leg-up for the first time in the Grand 

 National, or, as it was usually termed in those days. The 

 Liverpool, on which occasion he rode Banstead, by Young 

 Priam (6 yrs., 9 st. 4 lb.) a horse belonging to Captain 

 Townley, who, however, came down heavily in the second 

 round, and dislocating his shoulder, had to be destroyed. 



One of Mr. Bevill's most cherished reminiscences of his 

 early days in the saddle is a point-to-point match he rode 

 and won in 1857. He was living at Brigstock in North- 

 amptonshire at the time, with the idea of learning farming, 

 and a local innkeeper having matched a horse of his, named 

 Discord, against another in the neighbourhood, offered this 

 rising young sportsman the mount ; the rider of the other 

 being none other than George Ede, who, curiously enough, 

 was also residing in the locality for the same purpose as 

 himself. 



From beginning to end it was a most sporting affair, the 

 country being a big one, and the horses keeping together 

 the whole of the way. 



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