1 76 The Post and the Paddock. 



in the Commercial-road, was always selected by 

 the manager of TJie Lifes dovecote to take the Good- 

 wood route on the Gratwicke Stakes and Cup days ; 

 but he was lost in his third season, and in all proba- 

 bility was killed by a hawk, many of whom haunt 

 the towers of Westminster Abbey for six months in 

 the year. 



Old Joe Rayner, who was believed by many to 

 be the veritable " Dog," although a much younger 

 rival announced himself as such both at home and 

 abroad, was the patriarch of racing writers. " Gold- 

 finch" was the signature he generally assumed, and 

 the deeds of cracks past and present were his unvary- 

 ing theme. When the rapidly-increasing tumour in 

 his throat warned him, one October, that his race was 

 nearly run, he grasped his stick, and sallied forth to 

 bid his old sporting friends good-bye. We met him 

 in the Strand, and had a few minutes' chat about 

 Rifleman's defeat ; and then he added, at part- 

 ing, "/ shall never see you again, — I just give myself 

 eight days, and then it will be all over'' By that 

 day week he had taken to his bed, and in two days 

 more he died, thus fulfilling his last prophecy to the 

 letter. His heart was always true to Yorkshire : "he 

 loved it," he always said, "for its racing tastes, its 

 glorious hams, and its hospitable hearts," and for its 

 old recollections of Tate Wilkinson, when that acute 

 Northern Elliston led its theatrical circuit, and descried 

 the earliest dawning of each new star on the York or 

 Doncaster boards. From the Drury Lane Fund he 

 drew 100/. a year, which kept him above want, and 

 he retained his fondness of theatres to the very last. 

 The remembrance of his Tyke, Homespun, Fixture, 

 and four or five other characters, will always be green 

 spots in the memory of the lovers of footlights. He 

 looked the theatrical veteran to the last, arid used at 

 times to troll one of his old songs at the winning 

 trainers' Doncaster parties. Joe was always fond of 



