134 IRISH SPORT AND SPORTSMEN. 



see). Dixon was a fine rider, and so was George 

 Moore." 



** The latter was as good a man to ride a race as a 

 hunt, I am told." 



*' He was, and he won several races ; indeed, he 

 was a sort of Admirable Crichton. In the early days of 

 steeplechasing, when Mr. George Osbaldeston, Lord 

 Waterford, Jem Mason, and Dick Christian were wont 

 to ride their matches five miles, but taking them on 

 line, and never to keep the road for more than one 

 hundred yards, Mr. Moore shared with the late Mr. 

 Val Maher of Ballinkeale, and Lord Waterford, the 

 honour of upholding Irish horsemanship at Melton. 

 Nimrod sung their praises, and he took part in the 

 celebrated run — the article descriptive of which 

 brought unwonted fame to the * Quarterly' A ripe 

 scholar — indeed quite curiously erudite — an accom- 

 plished linguist, a connoisseur, an athlete, and a 

 sportsman all round. Can we wonder that he was 

 popular, especially when he added to all his other 

 extraordinary accomplishments a melodious and 

 commanding oratory, which made his hearers, on the 

 platform and in the senate, hang lovingly on his 

 ringing, heart-striking periods ?" 



*' He was lucky on the turf, was he not .^" 

 •* He was ; he won many races in Ireland, and was 

 a confederate of the late Marquis of Waterford — Lord 

 Henry I mean, for some time — and his horses won 

 valuable stakes in England. He won the Northamp- 

 tonshire Stakes with Wolfdog, and after that his inti- 

 mate friends used to call him ' the Dog.' He won no 

 money over the race though, and was so disgusted 

 at not having backed the right one, that he retired 



