A VISIT TO MY UNCLE. 
437 
ingratitude and most heartless conduct.” I read it, and found 
it running as follows : — “ Tregonwell Frampton, Esq., of More- 
ton, in Dorsetshire, Keeper of the Running Horses at Newmarket 
to their Majesties William III, Queen Anne, Geo. I and II, died 
12th March, 1727, aged 86.” 
This extraordinary character was born in the reign of Charles I, 
when the sports of horse-racing commenced at Newmarket, and 
he was owner of the celebrated horse, Dragon (whose portrait 
appears in a frame in the back-ground*). The most remarkable 
event in the lives of this gentleman and his horse Dragon is 
most pathetically depicted by Dr. John Hawkesworth, in No. 
37 of the “ Adventurer,” in the following words, supposed to 
be spoken by the horse in the elysium of Beasts and Birds. 
“ It is true,” replied the steed, “I was a favourite; but what 
avails it to be the favourite of caprice, avarice, and barbarity 1 
My tyrant was a man who had gained a considerable fortune by 
play, particularly by racing. I had won him many a large sum; 
but being at length excepted out of every match, as having no 
equal, he regarded even my excellence with malignity, when it 
was no longer subservient to his interests. Yet I still lived in 
ease and plenty ; and as he was able to sell even my pleasures, 
though my labour was become useless, I had a seraglio in which 
there was a perpetual succession of new beauties. At last, 
however, another competitor appeared, and enjoyed a new 
triumph by anticipation. I rushed into the field, panting for the 
conquest; and the first heat I put my master in possession of the 
stakes, which amounted to 1000 guineas. Mr. , the 
proprietor of the mare that I had distanced, notwithstanding this 
disgrace, declared with great zeal that she should run the next 
day against any gelding in the world for double the sum. My 
master immediately accepted the challenge, and told him that 
he would the next day produce a gelding that should beat her. 
But what was my astonishment and indignation when I dis- 
covered that he most cruelly and fraudulently intended to qualify 
me for this match upon the spot, and to sacrifice my life the 
very moment in which every nerve should be strained in his 
service 1 As I knew it would be in vain to resist, I suffered 
myself to be bound. The operation was performed, and I was 
instantly mounted, and spurred on to the goal. Injured as I 
was, the love of glory was still superior to the desire of re- 
* There is also introduced into the picture a game cock and a greyhound ; 
the former perched upon a slab or table by the side of Frampton, while the latter 
reposes his chin upon the old man’s thigh, with his mouth gently twitching his 
loose and ruffled coat-sleeve: both figures evidently intended as emblems of the 
genuine spirit of the sporting character of his day, while they remain as con- 
firmatory testimonies of his heartlessness and cruelty. 
VOL. XXIV. 3 o 
