6 JOHN PORTER OF KINGSCLERE 



went there in 1853. When Mr. Gratwicke (who 

 died in 1863) finally gave up the stables they 

 were taken by Mr. Padwick, for whom Day was 

 really acting as private trainer, though permitted 

 to accept the horses of one or two other owners. 



At the time I became his pupil John Day 

 was getting into years, but was still one of the 

 leading trainers. The name of ** Honest John,** 

 so often applied to him, was indicative of his 

 reputation in the racing world. The most 

 prominent men on the Turf were among his 

 greatest admirers. It has been said that he 

 did more than any of his contemporaries to raise 

 the trainer's calling to a higher plane than it 

 occupied in the early years of the nineteenth 

 century. I was very fortunate in being brought 

 in contact with this worthy, and fortunate also 

 in that I quickly gained his confidence. Day 

 seemed fond of me and I got on well with him. 

 He lived at Patching, about two miles from Michel 

 Grove. When he went home I used to ride 

 behind him — the two of us on the same horse — 

 and take the hack back to Michel Grove. On 

 Sundays I sat with him in church. He invariably 

 began the responses when every one else had 

 finished, and his voice was not exactly a whisper I 

 It was an eccentricity of his always to carry a large 

 cotton umbrella, of which his friends made no 

 end of fun. 



John Day was a very early riser, and those 



