Colonel R. F. Meysey-Thompson 



saddle was at the Grand Military Meeting at Sandown Park 

 on March 29th of this year, when he rode Tallyrand, belonging 

 to his son, in a two-mile selling steeplechase. The horse fell 

 at the water, but was quickly remounted, his indomitable rider 

 receiving an ovation as he galloped past the stands. 



COLONEL R. F. MEYSEY-THOMPSON 



The well-known and popular horseman who forms the subject 

 of this chapter, is the second son of the late Sir Harry Meysey- 

 Thompson of Kirby Hall, Yorkshire, and the brother of Lord 

 Knaresborough. After seven years at Eton, where he won 

 several races on the running-path, and the river and in 1865 

 was first-whip to the Eton Beagles, he joined the Rifle Brigade 

 in 1866. A very small allowance besides the slender pay of 

 an ensign, and without a racing friend to give encouragement 

 in the way of mounts, or riding gallops, did not present a very 

 promising future to an aspiring jockey, but " where there's a 

 will there's a way," so the young rifleman never refused the 

 offer of a mount, no matter how unpromising it might be. To 

 the remonstrance of a friend who tried to caution him against 

 riding such neck-risking brutes, he made a characteristic reply : 

 "No one," quoth he, "is likely to give me good mounts at 

 present, so I must e'en ride what I can get, for I must have 

 practice in public ; then when better horses come in my way 

 I shall be able to make the most of them." An argument 

 which, at any rate, showed that his nerve was all right ! 



His first appearance in a silk jacket was at the Hampshire 

 Hunt Meeting at Waterloo in the Open Hunters' Race, in the 



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