Mr. Frank Gordon 



until the late Lord Cheylesmore — then Mr. Eaton, M.P. — 

 came to the rescue and purchased the lease. Mr. Percival 

 often had as many as a hundred high-class hunters at a time in 

 his stables at Wansford, many of them being let out on hire 

 during the season to the distinguished foreigners, and others 

 who made the Haycock their head-quarters during the hunting 

 season. 



That celebrated horsewoman, the late Empress of Austria, 

 paid several visits to the Haycock. She brought but few 

 horses with her, relying almost entirely on the hunters Mr. 

 Percival and Mr. Gordon, between them, took so much trouble 

 to procure. 



Shortly after settling down at Wansford, where he still 

 further graduated in the art of riding over a country, Mr. 

 Gordon took to steeplechase riding, and, had he cared to do so, 

 might have won as much fame in that line as did his friend, 

 Alec Goodman. It seemed at one time as if he intended to 

 direct his talents altogether in that direction, as he figured at a 

 number of steeplechase meetings, where he displayed the same 

 ability which distinguished him in the hunting field. 



His solitary mount in the Grand National was in 1853, on 

 which occasion he was second, on Miss Mowbray, to Peter 

 Simple, who won by four lengths ; Oscar, his more fancied 

 stable companion, with whom his owner declared to win, being 

 third, in the hands of Mr. Alec Goodman, who had steered 

 Miss Mowbray to victory the previous year. Notwithstanding 

 the declaration, however. Miss Mowbray actually started 

 favourite at 5 to i, Oscar standing at 6 to i. 



One of Mr. Gordon's best-known victories was at Melton, 

 when, mounted on The Sluggard who was trained at Wans- 

 ford, he beat Jim Mason, on a hunter of his own, in a match 

 for ;^500. The last race of any importance he rode in was 



85 



