Dick Christian again. 33 



downed him ; he never could ride him, and he actually 

 gave him up. My son Charles was the man as broke 

 him ; he'd rear up and throw himself, and try to kneel 

 on him and keep him down ; he throwed John Parkes 

 off three times before Stamford Grand Stand ; and 

 then he let Charles ride him, and ran a splendid 

 second. Charles was a capital rider ; poor lad ! he 

 died at Grimsthorpe, of consumption ; he made a 

 hunter of Glenartney — I think that was the name — for 

 Lord Willoughby ; he took a deal of handling — race 

 horses always do. 



That's Burley Park ; what a run we ^^^, ^^^^ 

 had from there to Dean, in Sir Gilbert's 

 time ! sixteen miles nearly ; every horse beat. I was 

 head groom to Sir Gilbert, then ; never had to pull my 

 coat off. I was on the same horse when we ran that 

 season from Woodwell Head, and killed at Brown's 

 Coppice, close to Rolleston Coppice, right over the 

 Owston Wood country. Dashed if I didn't leave 

 my horse in the middle of a field, and I cuts off the 

 brush ; up comes Dick Lambert, the first whip ; 

 " He had a brush on!' he says. " So he had',' says I, 

 " and its in my pocket!' He began to wobble a bit, 

 when Sir Gilbert, he gets up, and he begins : " What 

 are you tzvo Dicks quarrelling about ? Christian beat 

 you ; he may keep it!' This was a grand cricket 

 ground at Burley, here. That's the very spot where I 

 rode the pony race, six-and-sixty years ago. Kent 

 and Surrey all come here that day, for cricket ; such 

 clipping work, booths and fiddles ; such thousands of 

 people. Dear ! dear ! they must be well nigh all dead 

 and gone now. Look at these fox covers ; I don't 

 know how many quarters the've in them ; and such a 

 pond ! Now you get a grand view of the house. 



That's Gibbet Gorse, as fine a cover as TheTaieof Gib- 

 ever was seen. I saw those two brothers ^^^ ^01%^. 

 hanging on the gibbet, with white caps on ; they 

 murdered a baker called Freeman. I \<y^as only seven 



D 



