122 Silk a7id Scarlet. 



hence his Malton title of "The Drover." He was 

 consigned to the care of Billy Roughhead, the eccen- 

 tric old groom who used to travel with Lord Chester- 

 field's brood mares, and for a bet, wore no hat on his 

 yellow shock for a year ; and his way of coaxing his 

 charge to walk with him to Malton was by buying 

 him perpetual tarts on the road, and dwelling on the 

 glories of the Whalebone blood. Johnny Gray was 

 even a generation older than Tommy Lye, and always 

 able to ride 6st. 81bs. In spite of these small propor- 

 tions, his friends aver that he got on the betting-room 

 table at Doncaster, and gaily challenged the American 

 Giant to fight, the year when he and Caunt drove 

 tandem through the town, to the great bewilderment 

 of the non-racing burgesses, who thought that, in 

 addition to their other woes, two sons of Anak had 

 descended on them in the flesh. Johnny's last great 

 victory was on Cyprian for the Northumberland Plate, 

 whic^ he afterwards thus described to John Scott in 

 an almost Homeric strain : " / eased her up the hill ; 

 I teazed her down the hill ; I strode her across the flat ; 

 and I beat your flash jockey!' This description of the 

 struggle was not lost upon society ; and he was reve- 

 rentially termed by all Malton, " tJie head man at 

 Scott's," after he had thus beaten Jack Holmes. 



Bill Scott -^^^^ Scott was a long time learning his 



business, and was first in Sadler's stables, 

 near Eibury, with his brother John ; and then came 

 northward, in i8il, to Croft at Middleham. His 

 sudden rise seven years afterwards was cotemporary 

 with Comus, whose three-year-old stock foreshadowed 

 their Doncaster prowess by carrying everything before 

 them at Catterick. The betting men collected, as was 

 their wont, in front of Ferguson's inn, and laid 3 to I 

 on Lochinvar for the Claret. The Juggler was con- 

 sidered to be such a wretch that Mr. Powlett had 

 given him away ; but as the donee did not think it 

 worth while to send for him till long after the time 



