32 NEWMARKET EARLY IN THE CENTURY. 



effected, after encountering all sorts of difficulties 

 and dangers, as the roads were very bad, and 

 skirted by open ditches, into some of which the 

 refractory animal would leap, seriously jeopardising 

 his own limbs and life, and also those of my father. 

 During the first four or five days he had, as may 

 be imagined, a very uncomfortable time of it ; but 

 after that the horse acknowledged his own defeat, 

 on finding that he had a horseman on his back 

 whom he could neither frighten nor unship. 



At school my father was a great friend of Frank 

 Baker, a fellow-pupil and contemporary, who sub- 

 sequently trained for George, Prince of Wales, 

 afterwards George IV., and was an intelligent and 

 well-informed man, devoting many hours daily to 

 study, by which means he amassed a great stock 

 of general information apart from horse -racing. 

 Baker was a very steady and economical trainer, 

 and also a great favourite with the boys and em- 

 ployees in his stable. For the Prince he was very 

 successful, and by care, hard work, and thrift 

 acquired a small competency. His house and 

 premises adjoined those of James Edwards, who 

 trained for Lord Jersey, Sir John Shelley, and 

 many other notable patrons of the Turf Baker 

 owned the house in which he lived, and in it he 

 passed his declining years, altogether secluded 

 from company. At school the friendship between 

 my father and Baker was very great, and it con- 

 tinued until my father left Newmarket in 1823, to 



