FRANK WELTO N.

A FANCY SKETCH.

BY CECIL.

In my last communication Mr. Francis Welton was introduced as a performer of great excellence in the cricket-field, and a gentleman of considerable repute in the sporting world. As the life and adventures of a sportsman generally comprise subjects of interest, I have endeavoured to collect such incidents connected with his career as may serve to illustrate the character; premising that, although this little history is announced as a "fancy sketch," every event has a foundation in reality. The juvenile days of our friend may be passed over with very few remarks-none, excepting those which appertain to the establishment of sporting acquirements. It was his misfortune to be deprived of a father's care at an early age; thus did his education and introduction into the world devolve principally on his mother, a most affectionate and kind-hearted lady, but very deficient of that resolution necessary for the successful management of a resolute and somewhat headstrong boy. Two maiden aunts, who were most sincerely attached to the father of our hero, contributed their services on many occasions to "spoil the child ;" and as he had, exclusively of a fair independence, what are commonly termed good expectations-in which, however, he was most painfully deceivedthe difficulties he had to encounter on his first appearance on the stage of life were much increased by the very means which his relatives vainly hoped would tend to avert them. It seldom happens that sporting pursuits are sanctioned by the female portion of the creation; and, anomalous as it may appear, Frank Welton was inculcated with a love for them by those aunts who in after-years censured him for following the amusements to which they had introduced him. How often it occurs that a trifling incident becomes the foundation of subsequent important events, quite beyond the glance of human penetration, in amanner which can only be attributed to fate! When quite a boy, not more than 13 years of age, it was arranged that Frank Welton should spend his summer holidays with his aunts, who resided in one of the midland counties celebrated for field sports; and as the distance was considerable, one of the good ladies met him midway between her home and the school. Nothing is more certain than that all things must have a beginning, and this was the commencement of our hero's sporting career. It happened the races were being held at the town in which the aunt and her nephew met; they had to remain in the town for the night, and it is but natural to suppose a schoolboy would be anxious to witness the sport. His solicitations were importunate: his relative urged the impropriety of a single lady going to a race, unless with a party; but that difficulty was overcome

by accidentally observing a family with whom the lady was acquainted drive up to the hotel, and with them they proceeded to the course. The circumstance of one gentleman of the party having a horse engaged, which he rode himself, increased the interest in the mind of our young hero, who felt that the height of his ambition would be completed if at a future time he could become a gentleman-jockey and owner of race-horses. From that moment his fondness for racing was established.

Subjected to less restraint under the care of his indulgent aunts, Frank was delighted to pass as much as possible of his time under their roof, and the succeeding winter a pony was procured for him to ride with a pack of harriers kept in the neighbourhood; and whenever the foxhounds met within reach, one, and sometimes both, of his aunts accompanied him to see them throw off; for it must not be denied that they were great admirers of the noble sport, and, doubtless, the propensity was hereditary. There could be no reason why these good ladies should not have promoted their nephew's amusements in participating in field sports; but it was unkind, ungenerous, and inconsistent, to censure him in after-life as they did, when his taste became matured to the food which they had provided.

However flattering any young man's prospects may be, it is imperatively necessary that he should be brought up to some profession. Such are the vicissitudes of life and fortune connected with this and all the civilized countries in Europe, that every man ought to be provided with a means of gaining a living, in the event of casualties, against which no other security can be devised. When we look around and behold the extent to which the ravages of unavoidable litigations, improvident extravagancies, and divers other agents of demolition, have recklessly levied their contributions on paternal acres, the man must be void of intellect, or totally wanting of parental affection, who does not give his sons the advantages of professions as sheet-anchors in the tempestuous sea of adverse circumstances. In the case of Frank Welton this was overlooked; and having completed his scholastic studies, his time was divided between the residences of his mother and aunt, but principally at the latter, where, before he had passed the days of his minority, two hunters and a hack were provided for his use. Thus an appetite for the chase was, to all intents and purposes, assiduously cultivated, and early practice rendered him an accomplished horseman: though here, again, a great mistake was perpetrated. His horses were, like himself, young and inexperienced, and he had to make hunters of them as best he could. This occasioned falls innumerable, which no doubt led to a system of cautious riding; for, although he eventually rode well to hounds, and could always give a good account of a run, it was evident that he did not ride with that reckless daring which the high character of his stud subsequently might have inculcated. For a youth to become a shining performer with hounds, a horse of the steadiest and most tractable disposition, perfectly accomplished in all kinds of fencing, is the most suitable animal for his early probation; thus mounted he will gain confidence, and at a future period be able to ride hunters of more difficult tempers.

Having attained his majority, Frank Welton established himself in

a residence well suited to his position; and it is scarcely necessary to add, that he selected one to which good stabling was an essential requirement. Four, and sometimes five, hunters of good character, purchased at high prices, with hacks and harness-horses, occupied the boxes and stalls. Without the assistance of an experienced monitor to guide him in his selections, he often gave prices exceeding the real value of the animal he purchased, the inevitable consequence of youthful inexperience; but, considering his deficiency of that valuable attainment, he was a superlatively good judge of the genus equestris, scarcely ever selecting those which were not thorough-bred, or very nearly so. In this his weight favoured him, as he has never exceeded eleven stone, saddle and bridle included. One of his first speculations was an unfortunate one, but it no doubt afforded him a lesson, and the circumstances connected with the purchase and subsequent sale form an appropriate illustration of the snares and schemes adopted to beguile a young and unwary sportsman. He went to a racemeeting at the county town, accompanied by a neighbour who professed to be his friend. A very good-looking grey gelding was entered, and ran, for a minor stake; he was an animal short on the leg, active, and in every respect promising to make a hunter; five years old, and had been out with hounds a few times. Being on the lookout for a hunter, this was just the horse to take his fancy. The owner was an old friend of Welton's neighbour and companion, through whom the negociation was completed for a sum exceeding a hundred sovereigns. On sending the horse out of the town, Frank fancied he detected a slight lameness; but his friend persuaded him it could only be a little soreness, the effect of running on hard groundthat it was sure to go off; and advised him by no means to make any objection, using the most specious arguments in favour of the seller, with whom, it must be observed, our hero was unaware that any intimacy existed beyond that of a casual and slight acquaintance. Rest and physic patched up the grievance; but the seeds were sown of an incurable navicular lameness, which, like all cases of that nature, increased, although he stood a season's hunting, and, by good management during the summer, commenced a second. But as the history of this good-looking screw is somewhat remarkable, it shall be again referred to.

Open-hearted, liberal, and unsuspicious, Frank Welton was surrounded with several of those designing characters whose only object is deception. Perfectly ingenuous himself, it was his maxim to judge of others upon the same principle; but, unfortunately, those honourable feelings will not carry a man through life clear of the impediments which are laid to take advantage of him. A young man of generous disposition will think every individual honest and sincere till he finds him otherwise, but the world will teach him the fallacy of such conceptions. His groom was an arrant rascal, and connected with horse-dealers of the worst character, as will be shown in the sequel.

It has already been mentioned that young Welton had acquired a fondness for racing, and he had now an opportunity of indulging in it, by engaging one of his horses in a hunter's stake, which of course he rode himself, and was beaten. This was certainly no great encour

agement; but he bought a couple of horses in the north, which he placed under the care of a trainer whose conduct towards him was anything but satisfactory. The following autumn afforded another opportunity for engaging a hunter in a stake confined to horses hunted with the hounds of his locality. It was a thorough-bred horse, that had shown some running previously to his having purchased him, and his winning was regarded a certainty; subservient, nevertheless, to the casualties of racing. The conditions of the race excluded all horses prepared by acknowledged trainers; hence the groom was deputed again to try his skill. The horse was a great favourite, and thus a temptation was offered to the presiding genius of the stables which he could not withstand. His attainment in the arts and mysteries of training might not be of the highest order; it is seldom that hunting servants are quite au fait in that particular science, unless brought up in racing stables; less so in bygone days than at the present period. They very seldom give their horse sufficient work, but in this instance it was overdone. Commencing with a strong-constitutioned horse, very lusty, and not allowing sufficient time for the purpose, he was galloped and sweated till he had no energy left in him; and, to mend the matter, the groom-trainer gave the horse a very severe sweat on the day before the race-he came out as stale as a post horse, and was beaten. Mortified exceedingly at the result of the first heat, poor Welton was disposed to attribute the horse's defeat to his own want of experience in race-riding, and for the following heat he put up a gentleman of known repute; but the issue was precisely the same.

Leagued in with a low description of horse-dealers, the groom had shortly after this an opportunity of displaying his talent: as the season advanced, the grey horse already mentioned became more lame, and one of his eyes began to show symptoms of defective vision; another horse was nearly blind in consequence of most improper treatment. They all looked remarkably well in their coats; occasioned by an unlimited allowance of alteratives, in the form of powders mixed with the corn, than which nothing can be more dangerous. The grey horse was to be sold, which was communicated by the groom to an itinerant confederate in the dealing line, Mr. Trywell, whose practice consisted in taking up his abode in some fashionable hunting country, and dealing in the most inveterate screws till his position was not longer tenable, when he decamped to other quarters where he was not known. He soon paid a visit to the stables, riding a remarkably good-looking bay horse, thorough-bred. His first intention appeared to be that of purchasing all and every or any horse that might be for sale; but Mr. Welton had no inclination for such wholesale dealing, and confined himself to a negociation for the grey at a screw price of twenty pounds. Then came a proposition for an exchange for the bay horse already described; the dealer, of course, desiring to draw sixty pounds. This was not listened to, the horse being evidently fat and out of condition. The story told of this flat-catcher, which he was to all intents and purposes, was, that he had been recently purchased from an officer at Weedon Barracks, who had made an exchange into a regiment on foreign service; and that anticipating this, this horse had been kept in a loose box without work: that he

was seven years old, and had been hunted two seasons. The offer of a bill for fifty pounds accepted by the Hon. G. Fin payment for the grey horse, with the difference in cash, was prudently rejected; not that Welton had any doubt of its being genuine, or did he even give that a thought, but he very properly eschewed all such transactions. Mr. Trywell had no money, or, if he had, it was not his intention to part with it; but when about to depart, a suggestion was made by the groom to give in exchange for the bay horse the grey and a brown mare-a good hack, and occasional hunter; though irritable with hounds, a hard puller, and very fond of rushing at her fences. This, however, was not accomplished without an additional sacrifice of some five or ten pounds. The result may be anticipated: the bay horse turned out to be a very different animal to what he was represented; he was several years older, a most vicious brute with hounds, knew nothing about fencing, although he would leap the bar beautifully. And on discovering these facts, in disgust Welton sold him to the first customer he could find. The history of the grey, however, is not concluded. Try well took him into the Atherstone country, and lent him for a day to a gentleman celebrated for riding to hounds, and they happened to have an excellent run. In dirt, with a weight not exceeding thirteen stone, few horses could beat him; but he would require a fortnight or three weeks' respite to get his foot in order. He distinguished himself, or rather his rider did that for him, and the performance of the unknown grey was the subject of much conversation; a strange horse invariably excites more attention than one that is known. On the following morning a gallant major, well known in those days in that sporting country, proceeded straightway to the stable where the horse stood. He was in a dark stall, with his defective eye against the wall, and the unsound foot in poultice, as it was alleged because he had stubbed himself the day previously; but of course he could not be even led out after such a very severe run. All anxiety to become the purchaser of a hunter that had shown such superiority and gained so good a name, the major inquired the price, and concluded a bargain by giving a cheque for fifty, and a mare for which he had recently given sixty, the seller promising to send the horse to the major's stables, about a mile distant, and have away the mare; but the horse not arriving as soon as was expected, a servant was sent off with the mare, with orders to bring home the choice bargain. The major's consternation may be imagined when he discovered the excessive lameness of his new purchase, and his still greater indignation when his man informed him of the defective state of the eye. "Take him back!" he exclaimed, with extreme anger; "demand the mare again, and also my cheque." All this, however, was a useless amount of trouble. Mr. Trywell and his accessories, together with his stud and all appurtenauces, were on the road to a distant hunt, to seek enjoyment in variety and fresh victims, to whom these sporting vagaries were unknown. The profits of this vagrant coper in the course of one week were by no means despicable; and how aptly that expression suits this peculiar mode of dealing! According to Walker, we find the substantive COPE, A sacerdotal cloak, worn in sacred ministration; anything which is spread over the head. COPE, v. a., To cover as