PRECOCITY IN THE SADDLE 123 



his weight was within a pound of 3 st., so that he was prob- 

 ably the lightest jockey that ever rode in public. 



" Little " Kitchener, Lord George Bentinck's famous 

 feather-weight jockey, was, of course, the lightest profes- 

 sional ever known ; and, if I remember rightly, he could 

 ride 3 st. 7 lbs. George Fordham in his early days rode, 

 however, nearly as light. He first made his mark by 

 winning the Cambridgeshire of 1852 on Little Daniel for 

 Mr Smith, in a field of thirty-nine, weighing only 3 st. 

 12 lbs. George's mount stood at 33 to i at the start; 

 but he not only won, but Little Daniel ran right away with 

 him into the town before he could be stopped. It was a 

 great triumph for the youngster, but his master thought it 

 was sufficiently rewarded by a present of a Bible and a 

 gold-headed whip. On the whip were engraved the words, 

 " Honesty is the best policy," and to that motto George kept 

 sternly true all through his splendid career as a jockey. 

 Two years later, in 1854, Fordham won the Chester Cup on 

 Captain Douglas Lane's Epiminondas, beating twenty-four 

 others at 4 st. 10 lbs. ; and it was his riding on that occasion 

 that drew from the bookmaker " Leviathan " Davis the 

 remark, "That lad is the best light-weight I have ever 

 seen." Frank Buckle is said to have ridden under 4 st. 

 when he commenced his career in the Hon. Richard 

 Vernon's stables ; and the elder Sam Chiffney, who could 

 ride 7 st. 12 lbs. to the last day of his life, is said to have 

 ridden under 4 st. when a lad. Fred Archer, on the other 

 hand, never rode lighter than 5 st. 6 lbs., at which weight 

 he won the Cesarewitch of 1872 on Mr J. Radcliffs 

 Salvanos. 



For precocity in horsemanship the present Lord 

 Lonsdale would be hard to beat, for he hunted " on his 

 own hook" when he was but five years old. And the 

 famous Captain John White, one of the finest horsemen of 

 his day, either with hounds or on the flat, commenced his 

 career in the saddle about the same age, on a pony so 

 small that, to quote his own words, " with the saddle on 

 him he used to walk under a leaping-bar at home, and 

 he afterwards galloped over it." Charles James Apperley, 

 well known as " Nimrod," tells us that he rode to hounds 



