Gentlemen Riders 



the National Hunt Steeplechase, at Market Harborough in 

 the early sixties, which nearly led to fatal results, for, his 

 horse coming to grief at the brook, Mr. Gordon was all but 

 drowned. In such a dangerous position had he got, indeed, 

 that no one dare venture to his assistance, until an offer of a 

 sovereign induced a man, braver than the rest, to go to the 

 rescue. He only rode in two more races after this. Mr. 

 Gordon eventually married Miss Alice Jane Percival, a 

 daughter of "mine host" of the Haycock, and whom he 

 had seen grow up from childhood at her father's house. 

 On their marriage they moved to " The Oaks," Thorn- 

 haugh, now occupied by Major Wickham, and for a number 

 of years farmed several hundred acres under the Duke of 

 Bedford. 



Custance, than whom there should be no more competent 

 judge, makes mention of Mr. Gordon's horsemanship in his 

 " Riding Recollections " in the following terms : — 



"In the days I am writing of" (the early sixties), he says, 

 "there were some real good men to hounds, and thorough 

 sportsmen as well, in the Fitzwilliam Hunt, amongst whom I 

 must mention Alec Goodman and Frank Gordon, two of the 

 finest horsemen I ever saw over every country. I have seen 

 them both many times in Leicestershire, and they were never to 

 be beaten. I hardly know to whom to give the preference, 

 and as they always spoke in the highest terms of one another, 

 and as they are still living, I don't think it would be fair to act 

 as umpire on such a delicate point." 



Describing a day with the Fitzwilliam Hounds, in 1857 — 

 just over half a century ago — a hunting writer of the period, 

 evidently speaking of a run from Elton Furze, says, " In 

 strange countries, I usually pick out a leader in some well- 

 known farmer ; but this day I made a grand mistake in selecting 



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