JUDGE CLARK.

Press, Volume XLVII, Issue 7497, 12 March 1890, Page 2

JUDGE CLARK.

; , JAwrue&VietuaUeri Qasette. \ The judgeship of Newmarket has been hereditary in the family of Clark for three 1 generations, and to add to the singularity i of'-the' 1 fact each Clark has borne the i Christian name of John. " The Judge," as , a separate office, Is a comparatively modern ( Turf institution. In the year 1772 we hear • of John Hilton beingappolnted to the post, 1 the duties of which previous to that date having been performed by the stewards of , the rices; but exactly twenty years later •We find the responsibilities of the office distributed between the Duke of Bedford, Sir .Charles Bunbury, and Thomas Paulton, Stewards of the Jockey Club. The other officials at the time were John Weatherby, keeper of the match-book; Joseph Lonchamp, keeper of the New Rqoma: John Hilton (who is now called clerk of the entrance of horses); Henry Warner, judge of the races; John Hammond, weigher of the jockeys; Samuel Betts, starter of horses; John Fisher, porter to the Duke's Stand and Coffee House Gate; while eighteen policemen werf employed to keep the course clear. HiltebrAvhether as Judge of the Coarse or Clerk of the Entrance of Horses, was in the employ of the Jockey Club for thirtyeight years, and upon his retirement in lwfe John Clark the First, who was at that time in his fifty-first year, having been born in 1745, was appointed to the judgeship. Mr Clark was at that time landlord of the Greyhound, in Newmarket pigji-streotv He heid the office until |822, and was succeeded by hi 3 son, who was a builder by trade, in the year that Palais Royal won the July Stakes •John Clark the Third, whom we aU know, was born amidst war's alarms, for j it was soon after Waterloo was fought, 1 and just at the time of his berth his father was drawn for the militia. This combination of circumstances, however, had no effect upon the lad's destiny, After receiving a good education at Grey Friar's School, Norwich, he went into his father's workshops for a time, to pick up a practical knowledge of the business, ; and was. then sent xo London to study architecture. After spending live years ' in diligent work he weut to Rome, where ' he made the acquaintance of Gibson, the - sculptor, and through him was enabled to i join the French Academy. In the Eternal I City John Clark imbibed an enthusiastic i admiration for Italian art, which has been 1 one of tbepasalons of his life. Upon his i return to England he purchased from the * Duke of Rutland some four acres of 'J ground dose to Severals; he then pro* « ceeded to surround his estate with walla 1 made pi huge boulders, at the foot ol c whiog he planted ivy. Ia the midat a? t the andosure he erected a villa la tha a Italia- Uteris.- such as ha had so frequently < 1

admired m the aunnv^Tir^ ss 1 kinds of teeß,^D^»| o^ h 'PJ4r»l?Tl has lived to see them life tho fift 1 the ago of twentv.twJ,£r itl ****»%!$ •* I f ith the UtoSr GuKi'S* 1 -• W* 1 forty other colSL Scott mtS 1 <*the 52^-_S f &___& Yoa «KClVwofe *» S f HMilgablo energy in hl« «. V *tth i,,? 1 I quently frornfour• '„ I ten at night and C s?j a, °hiln»V ft| ' 1 patrons. yearat-i Dot ift ll 1 Sectary SchS* I? Mouft «_fiffif j commissions from the arc« c«L 6 ilf signed ecclesiastical buffi^lS?* 7 Fortescue, Townshend, fe 45fe Carnarvon, country housesS>'W 1 ross and Lady Catherine I ket houses for Prince I Cadogan, Mr Houlda worth _Sft ft t while there are few grand &££ *-tW: . recent construction thS Bo, S ; country that have not boe™W* £ t* him and erected under hi* XSi? I These works, however, exteJSS? 1 number of years and far into tAeT&V, I architecture had ceased to be I business of his life. That 1 succeed his father as NewiJA-Wj l however, was no foregone court/-! Hi* deed, it was only by a fl n L o9loil Tf' obtained the office. Tie Earl and Mr John Stanley hadnmJS§ reversion to the late /ame? B& M ? it so happened that just at the hSM Clark the Second, throuah fan m ° Mi and feeble health, 'was pewuadedt ß those two gentlemen also ratew their stewardships, 4 N r - quis of Exeter and GeneYaW.,^ 6 •*•* *". had always desired that the XV&o Thll«e°r b ■ professors and patrons of tS^JlS, tk - i by the bye, may go a sroort Li. ' <*. \ that same Wd , to «P~£ him perfectly imparts wd fflilS'i ef: t to wfio may win. To sat ?> M ment has never been eSLi ii hU jdd * would be to credit him with iJiufilS.? 03 but on nearly all occaninnf , mrai "bllit- • has left Uttle y doubt S°hU te* the correct one. The most * M - of this was when many nen-Tu - ° ,tt,t ancß j decided opinion {J landed the Derby of I The Demon, however, was the tw r lt ? en < H this, for below the iSber SftM close a shave was it that a woulSi ™P " 9 I no. said Geora-e " I'm *w *£ ■ **: «<*. I TKe work which Judge Clark 1 annually for the last tmrtv-Xnn ™ 1 his official capacity has beenno^lSfi! 1 ! I —twenty-seven days atihi „„, g " .i I market Meetings? aSdays i tW w - 1 Spring and Surmner Mee3 n « tA m 1 each at Ascot <*odyos,S]J™ r e then there have been attnnHo„»„ H Warwick Nottinaham? iߣ& ee | « Windsor, Lewes, Harpend-n Rath ton, Odiham, I Brighton. Leicester, Eaham &<• i„ ?f over 100 days. In lakr7ffi?_ S__rlff of the Course at HarpeTden, £P& ! energy didmuch toraise that martta£Lj_? I present importance. For several -JES also filled the same office at tmSS? I Nor were his duties confined to giiffS* flrst three in every race, by no meana »_ easy task at times', but in aU cases otfoSu ■ ing, accidents, and malpractices tho Jadaa I is called upon to give evidence. f- j Clark has always been one of the Its respected men in Newmarket; see hia I on race days drivm- through thoHlrt I Street in company with his son-in-law, fir | Robinaon, who for some years assists S him l iv his duties, and everyone haa a I salute for him ; lords, dukes and SQoire*. I lounging in front of the Jockey Club: It bookmakers, trainers, jockeys, baekera, at §i the Subscription Rooms; tradesmen at & their shop doors, all give him a nod c, ! wave of the hand, a touch of the hat. A *'■'■' hale, hearty man still, his figure erart "- : his step elastic, he can do four aiilea au ' " hour uphill without evincinganvfatkua =' and many a youngster would fall to fea r fape with this white-haired and whit? > ." carded veteran of between scventv w\ <• ' eighty summers. He can romsmber tbo f first a cad heat that was ever run for th® *" Derby, between Cadland and the Colons! | • in 1828, though it was bofore he had any- f 7 thing to do with racing; but vrheaSt, Ii Gatien and Harvester ran together Qtlf E six years afterwards it was ho who w p nounced judgment. Thirty-seven m Oaks, St. Legera, Ascots, Goodwowlj |h Cambrldgeshlres, and'Cesarewltche, wlfokfrout a single break, form a pretty good rtsF cord. How determined ho was alweyjftfe under any difficulties to perform hlsdutlt was proved when, in 1886, while sußerin* &" from a severe attack of bronchitis, ho ia- f slsted upon rising from his sick-bed sd P~ being taken in a close carriage to Judge tli» Two Thousand Guineas. Just about rm fc' years ago he married his third wife. jr, See John Clark at home and yoa \i_ |*- flnd little of the turf among his sarrousd- | • lugs. Fairßtead House, which ho buiij |i and laid out upwards of forty years hwX, I has now gathered about it all tho choriEi I of maturity; the boulder walls by which i , it is girded are nearly covered with a | ! creeping luxuriance of ivy, the Bftplln:*a f, have grown into goodly-sized trees, saram* i and flowers abound, while the bleak, but I ■ pure north-easter that blows across ths 1 German Ocean direct from the sfcoppes oJ | • Russia has given a mellowness to ths |; Italian villa which may well remind the I. owner of the originals from which hs f; planned it. Many memorials of that; tlm | are fondly preserved by him: passports t/W ¥■ by Italian States that have long ceased 1* | have any independent existence: a short lilecture he delivered on Rome and NapJs, i : and papers on Roman antiquities iir r covered in Suffolk. Judge Clark la also t |; poet, and many of our readers rosj r?> f member the '* Turf Lyrics " that us« 4 B I appear from hia pen years ago la uw I dead-and-gone Bell's Life. He If I always been Tom Cannon's gue<tt dvM I the Stockbrldge meeting, and has &**s> 1 failed to celebrate his visit by a lay, algd I " Jay Eff See." Many will remember Is* I -* That's what puzzled Old Pavo," vrmc. I was the refrain of his «ong in ow i> the Bend dOr libel business; whlio lslw | he added a contribution to tho teeovfiit | jubilee literature, in which a gre»f «*w p racehorses and the Cannon _iuß«j "*" mixed up with the praise of her msjMty. 6 It has not been, however, t»o 3_W" * B 7 ft that have inspired his pen. Mr klsw » U an agriculturist, he has an estate at Xuag* h dalen Layer. a farm at X>uUln~ham «y. h and has written upon the calti?a«oa °\ R carrots as well as upon the subject o* »■ breeding and stock. He Is al«o ao exeef* h lent musician, playing the "folia * m no mean skill, while his wife accor* | panics him upon the piano. , _.. i Doubtless all this will aoawt «g f strange to many of our resdew* *« £ may picture a judge of the conn's as «**. I ing no thought, sympathy, ot psiwu* | apart from tho turf. Still, wnoflg »• \ treasures of Fairstead House-the ««» | tion of three generations of Ctark»-«t«« | are many interesting mementoes of &® | bread-winner. Two huge cuplwaros-g? | filled with the archives of hh ofuce, » I has a great collee-on of Racing Gdwmh s and a very curious document, ane&s .«m* i fighting, giving the list of matchf tor*} Jj yearl7->. Then he has afinecollertto'-J | portraits of great turfites, Willie » | Edwards, the famous jockey, who wm w» f godfather, of Admiral | George Payne, John Henry, Duke «**"■* I land; of his own father and graadfeW i of John Hilton, the first of the iu&W* i *« I Samuel Betts, the Newraark«t starW J* t 1804. Mr Clark retired from t*» PW»* i he so long and so honourably fecia m v™ i sporting world at the end of 1«*,«» X I letirement was made the occasion <>7» « handsome presentation, which wasj«7 f largely subscribed to by theeP o****0**** I press In testimony of the very high «•»;" | In which be was held by the fourtaestM* | We are glad to say that the judgeship »J i not gone out of the hlutorlc te™ l h although Mr Clark has not a son to soe«s J to the post, it haa passed tojhe hoisw-- A of one of hfs daughters. Mr Boblnson. ** "h Clark now leads the life of a W™* | gentleman. He is one of the WW I Council for West Suffolk and has «*» I from all other business. I