1 64 The Post and the Paddock, 



to ride the same colt for the St. Leger, for which he 

 was "milked'* and scratched. His 1843-44 mounts 

 were entirely confined to Mr. Thornhill, at whose 

 Newmarket house and stables he resided till the 

 November of 185 1, when he removed to Hove, near 

 Brighton. At Newmarket, his great pleasure, for the 

 six years after he retired, was to stroll out on to the 

 heath to see the gallops ; but he was very indifferent 

 about races generally, except when really good horses 

 were to meet. He bade farewell to Newmarket with 

 the Houghton Meeting of 1852, and never visited 

 Epsom after the day that " Frank" and West Austra- 

 lian won the Derby. The last race-meeting that he 

 ever attended was the Brighton one of the same year, 

 as he was too ill to get so far even from Hove, when 

 its next anniversary came round. We spied his spare 

 figure, in his black surtout and large hat, for the last 

 time, as he quietly strolled down Piccadilly, and 

 chatted with a few friends in front of the White Bear, 

 on a fine June day, just before the Ascot Meeting of 



1853. He had been ill about a month before he died ; 

 and his brother William had been to visit him ; 

 but a second summons failed to reach him in time, 

 and when he saw him again he was in his coffin. 

 His death took place towards the end of August, 



1854, two months before he had completed his 69th 

 year, and ten years and a quarter after he had quitted 

 the saddle, and he was buried in the beautiful 

 churchyard of Hove, which lies hard by his late re- 

 sidence. 



Brighton and its neighbourhood had always been a 

 favourite spot with him, as he remembered it in the 

 days when the Prince Regent kept court at its Pa- 

 vilion, and laughed at the story of how "little Sam" 

 and Will Edwards, in 1802, had led the Celia filly to its 

 meeting all the way from Stockbridge, and ridden 

 her in turns by the way. The Prince never forgot the 

 incident, and it strengthened the good impression 



