The Sun.
London, England, 1867-01-09 00:00:00

Doncaster Eccentrics.

We extract the following from Ur. Timbs's new work,
" English Eccentrics and Eccentricities :"
"Among the visitors to Doncaster racecourse are many
of the lower grade, some of whom have contrived to get
hanged. Such was the case some half-century since with
Daniel Dawson, who employed himself, or was employed
by others, in poisoning with arsenic the drinking-water of
horses whose success in the future race was not desirable
to Daniel or his patrons. Several steeds perished in this
way at tho hands of Daniel, in the north as well as at
Ness market. Ultimately a ease from the latter locality
was proved against him, through the treachery-of a con-
federate, and Daniel suffered, for it at Cambridge. Had he
been a met-4r in a good cause, he could net have died with
more becom'ngness. Daniel complained of no one, did
not even reproach himself ; and expressed his satisfactory
conviction that he should certainly ascend to Heaven from
the Brutal as his offence was, it seems ill-mea-
sured justice that takes a man's life for that of a beast.
"Dawson is beyond our own recollection; but wo can
remember amore singular and a much more honest follow,
whose appearance on the Doncaster course was as confi-
dently looked for and as ardently desired, as that of any of
the Lords-Lieutenant of the various Ridings. We allude
to the once famous Jemmy Hirst, the Rawcliffo tanner,
whose last of about fifty visits to the 'Sillinger ' and
Coop' contests was made when ho was hard upon ninety
years of age. When Jemmy retired from the tanning
business with means to set up as a gentleman, the first ob-
jectle purchased was not a carriage, but a coffin, deposit
ing ther3in some of the means whereby he kept himself
alive, namely, his provisions. The walls of the room in
which this lugubrious sideboard was erected were hung
round:with all sorts of rusty agricultural implements. This
lord of a strange household retained a valet and a female
general servant.' His stud consisted of mules, dogs, and a
bull, mounted on which he is said to have hunted with
the Badsworth hounds. His most familiar friends were a
tame fox and otter. He certainly rode the bull when he
went out shooting, and was then accompanied by pigs as
pointers. In fair-time Hirst used to take this bull and a
couple of its fellows to bo baited, sitting proudly by himself
while his valet went about collecting the ' coppers.' His
waiscoat was a glossy garment made of the neck feathers
of the d-ake, from the pocket of which he would issue his
own bank-notes,bearing responsibilities of payment to the
amount of 'Five half-pence.'
"His carriage was a sort of palanquin, carried aloft by
high wheels, and its peculiarity was that there was not a
nail about it. This vehicle was really better known at
Doncaster than the stately carriage of Lord Fitzwilliatn
himself. It was the boast of the proud and dit'.y gentle-
man who sat enthroned there that he had never paid and
never would pay any sort of tax to the King ; and how he
managed to shoot, as he did, without paying a licence, was
best known to himself. He was the most popular man on
the course, and, unlike very many who began rich and
ended poor, Jemmy increased in wealth year by year.
He was wont to cantrast himsele. with ' the Ptimoe's
friend,' Col. Mellish, who inherited an immense property,
won two Legers in two consecutive years, 1801-5, and
finally died almost a pauper. Jemmy had undoubtedly, in
his view of thinge, done better than 0 )1. Mellish ; but the
tanner, through life, never thought of the welfare but of
one human being— that of James Hirst. He was as selfish
as the butcher-churchwarden of Doncaster, who ruined the
grand old tower of the church by placing a hideous clock-
face in it, which was so constructed that no one could see
the time by it except from the butcher's own door!
"We should hardly render Hirst justice, however, if we
omitted to state how such a great man departed from this
earth. The folding door of his o'd coffin was closed upon
him. Eight, buxom widows carried his corpse for a hono-
rarium of half-a-crown each. Jemtry had expressed a
desire to have eight old maids to undertake this service,
bequeathing half-a-guinea to each as hire. But the ladies
in question were not forthcoming. So the widows were
engaged in their place ; but why the fee was lowered we
=not tell, unless it was to pay for the bagpipe and fiddle
which headed the procession. All the country round flocked
h to do Jemmy honour or to enjoy the holiday; and for
many a year afterwards might the sor:owing comment be
heard on Doncaster Course : 'Nay, lad ! t'Coop-day seems
nought-like wi'out Jemmy !' and the mourners took out
his 'Fihaw-pence notes,' and compared their own touching
respective memories of the departed glory of Doncaster.
"At the close of Jemmy's career the wonderfully dressed
'swell mob' was busiest, if not brightest. The latter was
only shop lived. A party of them really dazzled common
folk by the splendov7 of their turn-onf, both as regarded
themselves and their equipage. People took them for
foreign princes, or native nobility returned from foreign
climes, and not yet familiarly known to the public. The
impression did not last long. The well-dressed, finely-
curled, highly-scented, richly-jewelled strangers, saunter-
ing among the better known aristocracy, commenced a
series of predatory cp3rations which speedily brought
them within the fastness of the town gaol. No one who
sew them there a day or two later, after seeing them on
the course, will ever forget the sight and the strange con-
trast. Stripped of their finery, closely cropped, and clad
in coarse flannel dresses, they might be seen seated at a
board, with a hot lump of stony-looking rice before them
for dinner. _ _

"Altogether, there was occasionallya very mixed society
on and about the course—among the so -to-speak pro(es-
sional habii:uis, men who made a business of the pursuit
there —who were actors rather than spectators, and all of
whom have disappeared without leaving a successor in his
peculiar lino—we may mention the old Duke of Leeds,
redolent of poi:, ; the white-faced Duke of Clevelan(, the
Jesuit of the Ring;' P. W. Ridsale, ox-footman, then mil-
lionnaire, finally pauper ; blacksmith Richardson, who
shaking his head at Leeds,' would remark of himself, that
sobriety alone had saved him from being hanged ; Mr.
Beardswortb, who had been originally a hackney-coach-
man, then sporting his crimson liveries ; Mr. Crook, who
commenced life with a fish-basket ; and the well-known
son of the ostler at the Black Swan, in York, wearing
diamond rings and pins, betting his thousands, and look-
ing as cool the while as if he not only largely used the
waters of Pactolus, but owned half the gold-dust on its
banks.

" The two extremes of the official men as regarded
rank were, perhaps, Lord George Bentinck and Mr. Gully,
the ex-pugilist. The former introduced, at Doncaster,
the signal-flag to regulate the st•trts,' and he founded
the Bentinck Fund (w:th the money subscribed for a
testimonial to himself) for the relief of decayed jockeys
and trainers. The two men were equals in ono respect,
the coolness with which they either won or lost. They
who remember the year when Petro's Matilda beat Gully's
Mameluke, and who witnessed the event and its results,
speak yet with a sort of pride of Gully's conduct. lie
had lost immensely ; but he was the first man who ap-
peared in the betting-rooms to pay any ono who had a bet
registered against him ; and he was the last man to leave,
not retiring till he was satisfied that there did not remain
a single claimant. Ho pa'.d away a grand total on that
occasion, which, properly invested, would have set all the
poor in Doncaster at ease for over.

PRIVATE BILL LEGISLATION.—A " Model Bill,"
as entitled, has recently been printed, under the direction
of the P,:vate BPI-office, for adoption in the forthcoming
Session of Parliament. It contains 35 clauses and a supple-
ment of special powers required in some private Bills.
BELGIAN SMUGGLERS.—Some mounted smugglers
from Belgium, each cariiing about 100 l-Ilogrammes of
tobacco, snug, and cigars, some days since passed the
French frontier in a dexterous manner. Leaving Blandain
they followed the lino of railway as far as Baisioux, where
a French custom-house officer gave the alarm respecting
the ai:ival of this novel lend of train; but the smugglers
put spurs to their horses, and,,throwing a packet of snuff
to the official with a "Good overing !" succeeded in getting
off.
LICENSING PUBLIC-HOUSES AND BEER-SHOPS.—
We understand that a conference, under the presidency of
the Earl of Shaftesbury, is to be hold at the end of the pre-
sent month in St. Martin's Hall for the purpose of institut-
ing a searching discussion into the present system of licens-
ing public-houses and beer-shops. The Earl of Shrewsbury
and Talbot, the Earl of Har:owby, the Earl of Lichfield,
Lord Lyttelton, Lord Leigh, Mr. A. H. Layard, M.P., Mr.
Hugh Owen, of the Poor-law Board, and the Rev. 11. Solly
aro among the principal supporters of the conference.
DESERTED DOCTORS' COMMONS.--iire are in Doc-
tors' Commons, and lawyers themselves will be
startled to learn that the old Arches Court, the old Admi-
ralty Court, the old Prerogative Court, the old Consistory
Court, the old harbour for delegates, chancepors ors, viseacar-
generals, commissaries, prothonotaries, cursit, l-
keepers, sergeants-at-mace, doctors, deans, apparitors, proc-
tors, and what not, is being applied to such useful purposes
now. Let the reader leave the bustle of St. ;Paul's-church-
yard, and, turning under the archway where a noble army
of white-aproned touters formerly stood, cross Knight Rider-
street and enter the Commons. Tho square itself is a me-
morial of the mutability of human affairs. Its big sombre
houses are closed. The well-known names of the learned
doctors who formerly practised in the adjacent couits
are still. on. the doors, but have, in each instance, "All
letters and paras to be addressed" Belgravia or to one of
the western inns of court as their accompaniment. The
one court in which ecclesiastical, testamentary, and mari-
time law was tried alternately, and which, as wo have seen,
is now ending its days shabbily, but usefully, is through
the further archway to the left. Hero the smack Henry and
Betsy would bring its action for salvage against the
schooner Mary Jane ; hero a favoured gentleman was oc-
casionally "admitted a proctor exercent by virtue of a ro-
script ;" here, as we learnt with awe, proceedings for
divorce were " carried on in pcenam," and " the learned
judge, without entering into facts, declared himself
quite satisfied with the evidence, and pronounced fox
the separation ;" and here the Dean of Peculiars settled
his differences with the eccentrics, who I presume,
were under his charge, and to whom ho owed his
title. Alteration in the law has dispersed the merry brood ;
alterations in London have thrown their deserted legal
eyrie into the hands of the Metropolitan Board of Works;
and, until the ground adjacent is filled by the now thorough
faro, Mansion House-st-eet, the old court-house and Com-
mons' grounds will remain at the disposal of Capt. Shaw
and the Eir4 Drindo.—,Dickens's "ill/ the Year &ma." .