Riding Recollections and Turf Stories. By Henry Custance. (Edward Arnold.)—As
a rule books of this type pall even
on the appetite of the racing man; they are so egotistical, and some trivial detail will be threshed out for pages, but Mr. Custance's Recollections are so full of humorous little anecdotes and sayings of jockeys, that they are readable from beginning to end. We get an insight into jockeys, their ways of life, their ways of thought, their amusements, and their behaviour to each Other, which we are not aware that other writers have given us. Both sides of the jockey's life are described for us, and thus we can realise what a hard struggle against increasing age, stiff- ness, and illness, it often is. The judgments passed on con- temporaries—Fordham and Archer, to wit—by a great jockey, are alone worth reading. Hunting men who have known Custance and the "Doctor," perhaps the most celebrated hunter of our time, will read with pleasure some reminiscences of him and Leicestershire fifteen years ago.
Previous page
