Jockeys. ' 115 



to have no real taste for the profession which he so 

 worthily followed. He was only three weeks, after 

 being transplanted from Hampshire to Neale's stables 

 at Newmarket, before he won his maiden race at 

 Beccles, and then began his quiet but sterling career, 

 in which it has been said with truth, that he never 

 gave a race away. He was seized with spasms of the 

 heart the night he rode Ariosto for the Cambridge- 

 shire, and hardly ever appeared in public again. Croft, 

 whose health did not permit of his riding long, and 

 William Edwards, were contemporaries, and so much 

 alike as boys, that they might have established a 

 mutual " Clearing House," in consequence of the fees 

 which were perpetually paid to the wrong one by mis- 

 take. Will, who was the eldest of his family, came 

 out in 1800, and won the Feather Plate over the last 

 three miles of the beacon on a Fidget colt. The Prince 

 of Wales, who knew as well as any man out what riding 

 ought to be, engaged him for his light weights, and on 

 one occasion he took his celebrated ride from New- 

 market to Doncaster on a three-year-old black mule, 

 resting at Tuxford on his way there, and coming 

 through in one day on his return, while Clift, who had 

 posted his second horse at Wansford, could hardly 

 keep up with him. In 1826, when the Duke of York's 

 health began to decline, and reports reached Windsor 

 that a strong effort was to be made to make Good- 

 wood outshine Ascot, George IV. commenced training 

 and breeding once more, and placed his horses under 

 his charge. Eighteen race-horses, including Fleur-de- 

 Lis, the Colonel, Zinganee, Hindostan, and the best 

 of his own breeding, Sir Harry Beagle, were at " The 

 Palace" at Newmarket, when the King died, and as 

 William IV., after four years' trial, tired of the whole 

 thing, Edwards retired on a 300/. pension. 



George Edwards, who died about 1850, Henry and 

 was a very strong but not nearly so ^^orge Edwards. 

 finished a rider as his brother Harry, He never re- 



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