Mr. GWYN SAUNDERS-DAVIES 



At a period when the real thing in gentlemen riders, in the 

 true sense of the term, was apparently getting scarcer and 

 scarcer every day, the value of so promising a recruit as the 

 subject of this sketch when, in 1887, or thereabouts, he com- 

 menced riding between the flags in real downright earnest, can 

 hardly be over-estimated. 



A member of a Welsh family of ancient lineage, Mr. Gwyn 

 Saunders-Davies first saw the light of day in 1865, and, after 

 a preliminary canter at the preparatory school at Slough (pre- 

 sided over by the Rev. John Hawtrey, whose house at Eton, 

 where he was formerly a lower-school master, was a perfect 

 hotbed of youthful sportsmen, the late Lord William Beresford 

 being one of the number), went to Winchester, where he came 

 out strong as a cricketer, playing in the eleven in 1881 and 

 1882, when he left the school. 



It was in the last-named year that Mr. Gwyn Davies had 

 in reality his first ride in public, the occasion being the Law- 

 renny Hunt meeting, and the race the Lawrenny Hunt Cup ; 

 whilst the following year was responsible for his first winning 

 mount, when he won a three-mile steeplechase on a mare called 

 Jane Shore, at the Tivyside Hunt meeting. 



In the early part of 1884, a couple of chance mounts at 

 Tenby Steeplechases, both of which he won the same after- 

 noon, put him on still better terms with himself, and with a 

 speculative expedition to South America, for which country he 

 sailed the following June, not turning out a success, it is no 

 matter for surprise that, when nearly three years later he returned 

 to England, he should make up his mind to devote himself for 

 the future entirely to the training and riding of steeplechasers, 



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