350 A MIRROR OF THE TURF. 



business to take charge of the horses of any 

 number of gentlemen, and train them on terms 

 mutually agreed upon. 



There is one feature of jockey life which is 

 likely, in the course of time, to die out — that is, 

 the sweating jockeys had to undergo, and occa- 

 sionally have still to endure, to be able to ride 

 at a given weight. It is almost impossible for a 

 growing, well-fed lad to keep from " making 

 weight," and even set jockeys, men of mature 

 years, must occasionally work hard to keep them- 

 selves down or bring themselves to scale after a 

 winter's indulgence. In the old "wasting" days 

 there were fewer jockeys than there are now, and 

 no railways to admit of a jockey being whirled 

 from Newmarket to Ayr on an hour's notice. 

 At the present time there is a fair choice of 

 jockeys at all weights to select from, so that 

 sweating does not require to be so much resorted 

 to, or, at least, not in the same degree as for- 

 merly. In some of the Newmarket stables, and 

 in the Yorkshire and Berkshire stables as well, 

 there may be found about twenty jockeys able 

 to ride with ability at various weights. 



Many anecdotes have been printed of the 

 feats which were formerly accomplished by jockeys 

 in order to reduce their weight. These men 

 knew ** Banting " long before the celebrated 

 London upholsterer published his pamphlet, but 

 did not systematically practise the art. Thomas 

 Holcroft, the dramatist, author of The Road to 

 Rum, who was for a short period a jockey-boy 

 at Newmarket, has described the painful process 

 of " wasting " as it was practised in his day, 

 about one hundred and twenty years ago, when 



