SOME MEMORABLE MATCHES 305 



very trying), so that the jockey rode 160 miles on 

 that day. It may be interesting to note that 

 eight horses (not, of course, counting Quidnunc) 

 and six mares were employed by the rider ; that 

 ' the course he rode was from the Hare Park to 

 the Ditch, which made three miles ; from thence 

 went a three-mile course round the Plat on that 

 side the Ditch next Newmarket '; and that ' there 

 were posts and lamps fixed round his courses, he 

 chusing to start very early in the mornings, to 

 avoid the heat of the days.' 



A.D. 1 761 (? 1759) : It must have been about 

 this date that Holcroft the dramatist, according to 

 Mr. Christie Whyte's quotation from Hazlitt's 

 edition of Holcroft's ' Memoirs,' witnessed a 

 match (four miles, B.C.) at Newmarket between 

 Mr. or Captain 'Jockey' Vernon's horse Forester 

 and Mr. or Captain Jenison (whom Holcroft 

 calls ' Sir Jennison ') Shafto's Elephant, when 

 Forester (ridden by John Watson), as the two 

 horses drew near to the winning-post, Elephant 

 leading, * made one sudden spring and caught 

 Elephant by the under jaw, which he gripped so 

 violently as to hold him back, nor was it without 

 the utmost difficulty that he could be forced to 



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