68 SPORTS AND ANECDOTES. 



or coachman belonging to some of the gentlemen, and 

 sometimes a young gentleman farmer would try his 

 hand. For instance, Lord Wilton would ride, and 

 every one knows that as a jockey, or across country, 

 he was not to be beaten. Then there would be 

 Osbaldiston, the Squire, as he was called, Colonel 

 Lowther, Black White, old Platel, a solicitor from 

 Peterborough, and others whose names I forget, and 

 who are long since dead and gone. The principal 

 amusements on the course used to be pea and thimble, 

 pricking the garter, and a good deal of boxing, righting 

 with a legitimate ring and ropes, and a very fine 

 amusement it used to be, to see two fellows strip and 

 go at it, and punch each other's heads into twice the 

 size they ought to be, and till their eyes and mouths 

 were bunged up, so that their own mothers could not 

 have recognised them. 



At Stamford during the races there was always some 

 cock-fighting to be seen, and at the hotel there was a 

 regular cock-pit. Almost every sporting gent used to 

 attend, and as there were no bobbies in those days, 

 there was a good deal of betting, but everything was 

 carried on in a very orderly kind of way, and people 

 seemed to enjoy themselves ; whether the cocks did I 

 cannot say, but I heard a gentleman say that he was 



