^7 



CHAPTER VI. 



SAM CHIFNEY. 



" And Yorkshire sees, with eye of fear, 

 The Southron stealing from the rear. 

 Aye ! mark his action well !" 



Sir F. H. Doyle. 



THE autumn of 1799 brought with it Sam's thir- 

 teenth birthday ; and as a lad of that age, who 

 could still scale 4st. 2lb., had not the chance of three 

 Newmarket mounts a year, his father determined to 

 send him to his maternal uncle, Mr. Smallman, who 

 was then private trainer to the Earl of Oxford, at 

 Brampton Park, in Herefordshire, Although he was 

 sorrowful enough, in his quiet way, at bidding good- 

 bye to all at Newmarket, the little fellow looked 

 eagerly forward to the rides on the " Welsh circuit," 

 which his uncle held out to him. He buoyed himself 

 up too with the hopes that the Prince's heart was 

 still true to racing, and that he and his father would 

 in due time share the Royal mounts. When the 

 " Escape affair" happened, he was little more than 

 five ; but still the image of a handsome stout gentle- 

 man coming down, over and over again, to his father's 

 parlour, with Colonel Leigh, and not only insisting on 

 him and Will staying in the room while they chatted 

 there, but often leaving a bright new guinea in their 

 hands, was one calculated to haunt a child's memory 

 for many a long day. With such high hopes to cheer 

 him, he took to riding for Lord Oxford with no little 



