Gentlemen Riders 



Mr. WILLIAM CHARLES BALDWIN 



(The Lion) 



At the time of writing there is probably no term more fre- 

 quently mis-applied than that of " Sportsman." 



Whereas, formerly it was never used except in cases known 

 to be thoroughly deserved, nowadays a man has only got 

 to blaze away at pheasants until his gun-barrels are red- 

 hot and his kid gloves are burnt through, or to kill 

 more grouse than anybody else, or to win the Derby with a 

 horse he has perhaps bought only an hour before the race, 

 to be lauded as a sportsman of the very first water — "The 

 finest wot ever was seen," as Mr. Jorrocks would have put it. 



This cannot be said of the fine specimen of English 

 manhood who forms the subject of this chapter, for whom 

 sport was the one absorbing attraction which made life worth 

 the living, and who was ready and willing to go through any 

 amount of hard work or privation in the attainment of his 

 heart's desire. Such enthusiasm as this is infectious, and 

 though probably unaware of the fact, there can be no doubt 

 that he and others like him, by sheer force of example, have 

 done more good work in the true interests of Sport than all 

 the books that were ever written on the subject. 



William Charles Baldwin, commonly called *' the Lion," 

 was born at Leyland Vicarage, near Preston in Lancashire, on 

 the 3rd of March, 1827, and that the time-worn expression 

 " born and bred a sportsman " was peculiarly applicable in his 

 case, is made evident from the fact that when only six years of 

 age it was recorded that, one day when out with Squire 



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