Jockeys, 97 



could have knocked off ten or fifteen more. No ten- 

 year-old saint expressed such grief for the ruined 

 Temple of Nauvoo as he did for Doncaster Church ; 

 and if I mistake not he will see the New Church 

 before the New Temple, and will sit down once more 

 among the old comrades to a raised pie and a tankard 

 of ale." 



JOCKEYS. 



** With saddle strapped behind his dapper back. 

 Who canters up the heath on pigmy hack ? 

 'Tis Robinson or Chifney : mark his seat, 

 How film and graceful, vigorous yet neat 1" 



John Davis. 



IT has been well said of Englishmen generally, that 

 they come honestly by their horsemanship, with 

 Hengist and Horsa for their Saxon founders ; but still 

 it is to Yorkshire that we have to look for the germs 

 of real saddle science. The history of jockeys in fact 

 may be said to commence with its John john Singleton, 

 Singleton, whose register is still in the the jockey. 

 Church chest of Melbourne near Pocklington, and 

 bears date May lOth, 17 1 5. A rumour that race- 

 horses were trained on those Wolds, which he could 

 see in the distance as he tended cattle on Ross Moor, 

 first excited his ambition to catch and race the shaggy 

 colts which picked up their living around him ; and 

 the correction which he caught in due season from one 

 of the common-owners^ determined him to fly to that 

 land of promise, and engage himself to a Mr. Read, 

 on the terms of sleeping in the stable, and eating v/hat 

 he could get. The connexion thus frugally begun, 

 and cemented in its commencement by a mutual love 

 of horses and lack of cash, ended only with death. 

 The needy race-horse owner had his horses better 

 trained and ridden at the village feasts than they had 



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