Gentlemen Riders 



Mr. frank GORDON 



Of the many celebrated horsemen claimed by the sport-loving 

 county of Lincolnshire as one of its sons, whose " deeds of 

 derring do " are recorded in this volume, there is not one to be 

 named of whom it has more reason to be proud than the 

 subject of this memoir. 



The second son of the Rev. George Gordon, by his wife, 

 Elizabeth Catherine, daughter of Mr. Staunton, of Staunton 

 Hall, Notts, and grandson of the Dean of Lincoln, "Old 

 Frank Gordon," as he was affectionately called by the 

 younger generation, first saw the light on November 15, 

 1825, being born in the village of Muston, in the Belvoir 

 Country, where his father was rector. It was with the Belvoir 

 Hounds that he first learned to ride across country, and began 

 to gain his knowledge of horse and hound. In due time he 

 went up to Trinity College, Cambridge, with the ultimate 

 intention of entering the Church. His love for horses, how- 

 ever, predominated over every other feeling, and on leaving 

 the University he took up his abode at the Haycock, at 

 Wansford, one of the most famous hunting quarters in England, 

 and immortalized by the late Major Whyte-Melville, in the 

 appendix to his novel of Market Harborough, called " In 

 the Bar," where he remained for twenty years, first as a guest 

 of its proprietor, Mr. Percival, and afterwards as an associate 

 with that gentleman in his horse-dealing business. 



In addition to the Haycock, Mr. Percival kept the Great 

 Northern Hotel, at Peterborough, and was proprietor of 

 White's Club, in St. James's Street, which time-honoured 

 institution stood in danger of being broken up at his death, 



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