286 TRAINERS WITHOUT TRAINING. 



I have now to give some account of a still more 

 notable person amongst those who tried their hands 

 at training without any knowledge of the science. 

 Mr. Thomas Parr, owner, trainer, and jockey, was 

 certainly one of the most remarkable men that I ever 

 remember to have seen or conversed with. I am 

 unacquainted with his origin. His occupation in 

 early life was that of an itinerant dealer in tea, which, 

 for economy's sake, he carried himself, and sold 

 retail to his customers, sticking strictly to the ready- 

 money system ; a principle rigidly enforced on him 

 by the factors whom he honoured with his patronage. 

 He usually travelled in the West, starting in the 

 neighbourhood of Weymouth, wending his way 

 through villages and hamlets to Plymouth. As this 

 business was not congenial to his feelings for the want 

 of success, or otherwise, he soon left it, and plunged 

 into the racing world, and succeeded. 



It has been generally concluded that he only 

 trained for himself, as most of the horses he had ran 

 in his name. But this is a mistake. He trained for 

 Lord Lincoln (afterwards Duke of Newcastle), 

 Messrs. Sexty, Williams, Thornhill (the baker who 

 succeeded poor Glen, and got broke over Weather- 

 bound's Cambridgeshire), Robson, Padwick, Rich, 

 Thellusson, and, as I have specially mentioned, 

 Starkey ; and probably for many others of whom no 

 one ever heard but himself, for he was generally 

 pretty reticent over his own affairs. He was un- 



