‘As I have said, Mr Woodcock resided in the vicinity of Newmarket, at
the distance of three or four miles; and to the house where he lived
Clarke immediately took me, gave up his charge, and we parted, I believe
with mutual good-will: at least my feelings towards him were grateful
and friendly. As a thing of course, there must have been stables
belonging to the house of Mr Woodcock, but I cannot recollect what train
he had under him; and to say the truth, I cannot fix upon any one
figure, man, boy, or animal, except a grey filly, on the back of which I
was put, and which I was entrusted with the care of.
‘I doubt if Mr Woodcock was at home on my arrival. His family was small,
and had the air of being genteel. It consisted of himself, his wife, and
their daughter, who was about eleven years old. All that I can now
recollect of Mrs. and Miss Woodcock, is, having seen them very neatly
dressed in white, that the mother assumed a very superior but obliging
manner, and that I stood much in awe of her. Trees were thinly scattered
to some distance round the house: the parlour was very neat, and rather
spacious. In this I received one of those early lessons in moral
honesty, which produce a greater effect on the mind of a child, or even
of a youth, than is generally supposed. One afternoon, the tea-things
and sugar-bason being set out in the parlour before Mrs. and Miss
Woodcock had come down, I was passing the door, and that delicious bait
of boyhood, a fine lump of sugar, caught my eye. I looked, considered,
looked again, saw nobody, found it irresistible, and venturing step by
step on tiptoe, seized the tempting prize, thinking myself secure: but
as I turned back to hasten away with it, the first object that struck me
was a young gentleman, stretched either on a chair or sopha behind the
door, with a book in his hand, a look directed to me, and a smile on his
countenance. I cannot express the shame I felt: but I immediately
returned the sugar to its place, cast down my eyes, and slunk away, most
heartily mortified, especially when the young gentleman’s smile broke
out into a laugh.
‘I forgot to mention, though it will easily be supposed, that when I
entered on my new profession, my dress was changed, and I was made to
look something like a stable-boy.
‘Miss Woodcock was a very neat little girl, and it somehow happened,
though I know not by what means, that I soon got rather in favour with
her. She would whisper with me when we met near the house, chide me if
she saw what she thought an impropriety, and once or twice condescended
to be half or quite angry with me, while I did all in my power to please
her. These trifling advances, however, which spoke rather the innocence
of the age, than the intention of the mind, were soon put an end to by
an accident that had nearly proved fatal to me.
‘Perfectly a novice as I was, though I could sit with seeming safety on
a quiet horse, I neither knew how to keep a firm seat, nor suddenly to
seize one, and I was almost certain of being thrown if any thing that
was but a little violent or uncommon happened. I was walking the dark
grey filly quite a foot-pace in the forest, when in an instant something
startled her, and made her spring aside: by which I was not only
unseated and thrown, but unfortunately for me, my foot hung in the
stirrup; her fright was increased, she began to kick and plunge
violently, and I received a blow in the stomach, which, though it freed
me from the stirrup, left me, as was supposed, for no inconsiderable
time, dead. Somebody, I imagine, was riding with me, for the alarm was
soon given: I was taken up, carried home, treated with great humanity,
and by bleeding and other medical means, signs of life at length became
visible. All that I myself recollect of a circumstance so very serious,
and so very near being mortal, was, that I was thrown, kicked, and
dreadfully frightened; that some time afterwards I found myself very ill
in bed, in a very neat chamber, and that I was spoken to and attended
with great kindness till my recovery.
‘This accident, however, put an end to my jockeyship in the service of
Mr Woodcock: he discovered a little too late, that the dark grey filly
and I could not be trusted safely together. But though he turned me
away, he did not desert me. He recommended me to the service of a little
deformed groom, remarkably long in the fork, I think of the name of
Johnstone, who was esteemed an excellent rider, and had a string of no
less than thirteen famous horses, the property of the Duke of Grafton,
under his care. This was acknowledged to be a service of great repute:
but the shrewd little groom soon discovered that I had all my trade to
learn, and I was again dismissed.
‘After this new disappointment, I felt perhaps a more serious alarm than
is usual with boys at such an age. For, independently of natural
sensibility, I had seen so much of the world, had so often been
intrusted with its petty affairs, depended so much upon my ability to
act for myself, and had been so confident in my assurances to my father
that I ran no risk in venturing alone into the world, that my fears were
not trifling when I found myself so far from him, thrown out of place,
and convicted of being unable to perform the task I had so
inconsiderately undertaken. Mr Johnstone told me I must endeavour to get
a place, but that for his part he could say little in my favour;
however, he would suffer me to remain a few days among the boys. My
despondency was the greater, because, the morning before, when a horse
that I was riding shook himself in his saddle, as horses are sometimes
observed to do, I fell from his back as much terrified as if he had been
rearing, plunging, and kicking. To hardy grooms, and boys that delight
in playing the braggart, this was a truly ridiculous instance of
cowardice, and was repeated with no little malignity and laughter.