26o A MIRROR OF THE TURF. 



legend " Princess." So far all had gone as well 

 as could be wished : the right horse had won the 

 race. Then came the second part of the ghastly 

 drama. The corpse, dressed in the clothes which 

 the living body wore, being placed on a chair in 

 front of the window, was made, by various arts, 

 to look as life-like as possible ; and many of the 

 gentlemen as they passed on their coaches saw 

 the old man quite plainly, and looking, as some 

 of them said, " rather lively." 



In beginning this brief sketch by recording 

 the death of Crockford, it may be said I have 

 begun at the wrong end of my story ; but as I 

 do not aim at making a story, it is not of great 

 consequence how what I have to say about that 

 once notorious person is arranged. The pros- 

 perous "hell-keeper" died in the sixty-ninth year 

 of his age; his birth having taken place in 1775, 

 five years before the first race for the Derby took 

 place. As a child he might have witnessed the 

 beginning of that great series of turf events, with 

 some of which in after years it was his fate to be 

 connected. Not very much is known regarding 

 the early life of Crockford, nor in what year he 

 saw his first Derby. In the days of his youth he 

 had been a fishmonger, and was well versed in 

 the ways of London's great piscatorial bourse, 

 where at one time he was known as a successful 

 trader. 



Like many of his fellows at " the gate," 

 Crockford acquired that taste for gambling which, 

 like the ancient and fish-like smell that dominates 

 Lower Thames Street, has long been a charac- 

 teristic of the locality, and fortune is reported to 

 have favoured him in his little ventures from the 



