578 HISTORY OF THE 



even in the last days of his riding, we have be- 

 fore mentioned in this work. The incident we 

 allude to occurred about twelve years ago, when 

 he rode Dramatist at York, for the King's Hundred. 

 This horse took it into his head to bolt, when 

 leading a few lengths, and stopping quite sud- 

 denly at a large wet drain, threw poor Clift with 

 great force on his back at the bottom of it, where 

 the peculiar form of the place held him fast, and 

 prevented his extricating himself, A lady, who 

 happened to be near this secluded spot, on seeing 

 the accident, hastened in great alarm to the assis- 

 tance of the veteran, and inquired with much ten- 

 derness if he felt himself seriously injured : — 

 *' Hurt be d— d !" cried Clift, "here," holding 

 out a hand covered with mud, " d — n it, pull me 

 out!" Upon this polite request being complied 

 with, Clift remounted and rode in ; and although 

 much shaken with the fall, and though several 

 jockies offered to do it for him, he persisted in 

 riding a walk over for the next stake, in his mud- 

 besmeared jacket. 



The practice of riding to order, which the elder 

 Chifney informs us, in his "Genius Genuine," was in 

 use in his time, was certainly highly detrimental to 

 the acquirement of skill by the jockey, who by 

 this system, was reduced to act the part of a mere 

 automaton in a race. Nothing could be more 

 ridiculous than this practice, which the elder Chif- 

 ney had the merit of breaking through ; and as the 



