FRANK BUCKLE. 87 



My father used to say that Frank Buckle had 

 the finest character of any jockey that he ever 

 knew. His power of riding long distances was 

 unequalled in an age when all jockeys per- 

 formed their journeys on horseback. In point of 

 fact, Robert Robson, who was called " the Em- 

 peror of Trainers," would have nothing to do 

 with any jockey unless he rode long distances 

 almost every day on horseback. For many 

 years of his long life Frank Buckle resided at 

 Peterborough, where he was born, and where he 

 now lies buried. Although Peterborough is about 

 ninety miles distant from Newmarket, Buckle 

 thought nothing of riding from his own home 

 to the Heath and back on the same day. In 

 finishing a race, he had recourse to a circular mo- 

 tion of his arms, which caused him to be often 

 called the " Peterborough screw." His integrity 

 was so well known that, in a corrupt era, no 

 one ever thought of approaching " Old Frank " 

 with dishonest proposals or suggestions, as in one 

 instance he was said to have drawn his whip 

 smartly across the face of a gentleman who, al- 

 though a member of the Jockey Club, had the 

 audacity to ask Buckle to pull a horse in a match. 

 During the whole of Buckle's career the rivalry 

 between North and South was infinitely greater 

 than it has been during the last twenty or 

 thirty years. Owners and trainers of race-horses, 

 and the jockeys who bestrode them, were greatly 



