DICK GOODISON 151 



and were finer judges of a horse's points, no one was 

 then, and few since have been, his equal in getting a 

 horse on his legs, or in throwing him in at the finish, 

 a knack the late Fred Archer possessed. It was on 

 his lordship's Rocket gelding that Goodison earned 

 his sulphurous sobriquet in quarter and half-mile 

 matches which Lord March and he formulated about 

 this period. Whatever Turf lore ' Dick' learned from 

 his master, it is certain he did not imitate that 

 dapper lord in neatness of attire, for ' Dick ' was 

 terribly slovenly, and not either choice or particular 

 in his language. The reader will make his acquaint- 

 ance later on in this volume. I dismiss him for the 

 present with one anecdote. ' Dick ' to the day of 

 his death never appeared on a racecourse without a 

 greasy old wallet containmg several hundreds in notes. 

 The reason he gave for thus incommoding himself 

 was that he had once lost a ' sure thing ' through 

 being unable to cover a bet of £500. 'I lost that,' 

 was his never-faihng lament ; an opportunity he never 

 purposed to let pass again for want of the ' ready.' 



Selwyn, toujours Selwyn, next claims attention ; as 

 in this year, 1777, March actually seems to have 

 written his ' dear George ' ^ at least twice. In the first 

 letter his lordship finds fault with his friend for an 



' Appendix C 2. 



