Captain S. F. Lee-Barber 



to know that the lesson had a salutary effect, Jolly Sir John 

 never afterwards turning his head at the obstacle in question. 

 Shortly afterwards he won the Metropolitan Steeplechase of 

 500 sovs. at Croydon. When riding for the Danebury stable, 

 Captain Lee- Barber invariably had his choice of mounts, and 

 this was productive on one occasion — and that, unfortunately, 

 a very special one — of a great piece of bad luck. 



Redpath and Prince Edward II. being both entered in the 

 big Steeplechase in Paris, the gallant " Shaver " chose the 

 last named, to ride whom at 9 st. 7 lbs. he had to get off nearly 

 a stone. Alas ! his mount fell in the second round, and Red- 

 path, whom he had ridden to victory in the big Steeplechase 

 at Manchester in the spring, won. Out of his six or seven 

 rides in the Grand National he could get no nearer than 

 fourth, which thankless position he occupied on his own horse 

 Jupiter Tonans in 1880, when Empress won. 



On the other hand he twice won the Grand Military Gold 

 Cup, viz. on Colonel Waldron's (R.A.) Lobelia in 1881, and on 

 Beaufort, belonging to Colonel F. Murray (3rd Dragoon 

 Guards), in 1883. 



Besides those already mentioned, the subject of our memoir 

 has at various times donned the colours of the following well- 

 known sportsmen : the Duke of Montrose, Lords Essex and 

 Torpichen, Sir William Eden, General Byrne, Messrs. H. T. 

 Barclay, Gardener-Muir, J. H. Houldsworth, Douglas Baird, 

 Fairie, and J. Wallace. Of his many cross-country triumphs 

 there is not one which possesses more pleasurable recollections 

 for Captain Lee-Barber than the Liverpool Hunt Steeplechase 

 of ^800 in 1889, won by him on Ireland, and which he con- 

 siders the most trying race — as it was certainly the most 

 exciting — he ever took part in. Strong in the feeling that we 

 are totally inadequate to do justice to an Homeric struggle of 



311 



