OLD JOHX DAY. 65 



" Wliy^ they won't stand your training- a fortnight," 

 binrted ont the other. 



'^ My training- ! what d'ye mean by that, sir?" 



"Well/' said his companion, softening it down a bit, 

 ^- I think the Danebury Hill will be a leetle too much for 

 them." 



And sure enough in a fortnight two of the Velocipedes 

 had thrown out curbs ! But find a clipper to face the 

 ^' Danebuiy Hill," and he was sure to come in the market. 

 Despite the pot that now and then boiled over, people 

 knew this, and treated the stable, even in its most fanci- 

 ful of humours, with a certain degree of respect. John 

 Day was always well backed. '^The gentlemen" gene- 

 rally liked him, and, from our present Premier downward, 

 he held many staunch friends. He won the Cesarewitch for 

 Lord Palmerston with Hiona, a race rendered amusingly 

 remarkable by the controversy over the iota and omega. 

 The colours he looked himself most at home in were the 

 ^' all scarlet" of the Duke of Grafton, the black with the 

 white cap of Mr. Wreford, the green with the red cap of 

 Mr. Biggs, the light blue and white cap of Lord George 

 Bentinck, and it would be hardly right to omit the pink 

 and black stripe of Lord Cleveland. Abraham Cooper, 

 the Royal Academician, had more sittings at him than any 

 other artist, and painted him successively on Elis, Decep- 

 tion, and Crucifix. The most successful portrait, how- 

 ever, was one in a family picture painted by the same 

 artist, by order of Lord George Bentinck, who presented 

 it to John Day with the understanding that it was to de- 

 scend to his eldest son. In this group John stands in his 

 great coat by the side of the mule phaeton, in which are 

 seated his wife and his mother, while his son Sam is 

 mounted on the game Venison, and William on Chapeau 



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