Jockeys, 109 



Oaks on her. His son was very naturally so nervous 

 at the family prospects, that he could not put the 

 tongue of the buckle into its place as they saddled in 

 the Warren ; and Billy, who was as cool as a salad, 

 suddenly pushed him aside, with " Get out of the zvay, 

 thoti cur! tJwus never been a sofi of jmne" and com- 

 pleted the job himself. No one then suspected she 

 was a roarer ; and hence the late Mr. Jacques used to 

 say that on the Derby-day he " cotildnt get witJiin 

 Jicdf-a-mile of the mare for the crowd /' whereas, when 

 he went to look for her before the Oaks, which she 

 won, " there was no one round her but Billy and the boy J' 

 With the Duke of Cleveland he was quite a racing 

 prime minister, and he would visit him for a month 

 together at Raby, and dine with him every day. He 

 used, however, to say, on his return, ^^ I never forgot, 

 auld acquejitance, that I was Billy Pierse. I zuas useful, 

 or I wouldnt have been theer." He won several races 

 for his Grace on Haphazard, who was found at first to 

 be so bad, that he was ordered to be sold for what he 

 would fetch ; and Billy's sturdy figure, (which knew 

 little diminution of its iron vigour at seventy-four), 

 going up in the pink and black stripes to take him 

 from Sam Wheatley, is hit off to the life in a famous 

 print of the time. He had his last mount on Agricola 

 in the St. Leger of '19 ; and he might have rivalled 

 the ninety years of his father, who fought by the Duke 

 of Cumberland's side, at Culloden, if he had given a 

 second thought to the unusual colour of the bottle of 

 pure colchicum, which was sent him, twenty years 

 after that, by his doctor's assistant. The draught had, 

 however, got far too deeply into his system when the 

 doctor arrived, and found out the fatal error. He 

 maintained all the stern tranquillity of a Mohawk 

 chief when he was told his fate, and simply said 

 once that it was "hard to die before yen's time." 

 Richmond will not willingly forget her brave old 

 burgher. 



