114 ^'^^^ ^^^ Scarlet. 



shoulder to the six-stone-nine skeleton of a " Vicar," 

 in a straw jacket twice too big for him, who sat half 

 crouched on a bench in the weighing house, he 

 answered, " himy Both were dead before the next 

 Cup day came. Sam very seldom spoke at the post 

 or in a race, and if he did it was generally, " Glimed 

 if I think we ca7i catch them',' or something with that 

 mysterious prefix, the exact meaning of which nobody 

 ever knew. His left hand whipping was very good, 

 but he was not so quick with either hand as Robinson ; 

 and, in fact, the latter, as young John Day said well of 

 him after their Ugly Buck and Minotaur match, " could 

 piLiiisJi a horse most in the least time'' of any jockey that 

 perhaps ever rode over Newmarket. Four strokes in 

 the last twenty yards was his way of popping the 

 question, and on one occasion, when riding for the 

 Whip, on Cadland, he fairly frightened Zinganee by 

 gently cracking it at brief intervals within ear-shot, 

 right across the beacon. In fact he had, like Sam, so 

 many dodges, that the jockeys always declared that 

 neither he nor they ever knew when he was beat. In 

 stature Robinson was nearly half a head less than Sam, 

 when the latter chose to get out of his shoulders, but 

 he measured upwards of six inches more round the 

 chest. Wasting was no labour of love, and in con- 

 sideration of the great exertions they had to make, 

 Jem Bland christened the one "Old" and the other 

 " Young Pincher." Robinson wasted much the better 

 of the two. In his hey-day, he could get from Qst. 

 lolbs. to 8st. in a month, and although on more than 

 one occasion he was found fainting on a stone-heap 

 near Kennet and brought home in a cart, yet at the 

 time of his sad accident he could ride 8st. 5 lbs. easily 

 on a 2lbs. saddle, and a new 4lbs. one had just ar- 

 rived from town. 



Chappie, Croft. Jemmy Chappie was another of the 

 and William Ed- patient school, and like Jim and Sam he 

 *'^^^- rarely spoke of racing, and in fact seemed 



