“ The last steeple chase which we saw Mason ride was more by way of a lark than anything else, at Hendon, and he did not even condescend to take his cigar out of his mouth. The more a hunt approximated in pace and distance to a steeple chase, the better he liked it. ”

“ Such an idol did he become with them that, when it was settled that he was to ride “The Poet” in his own maiden steeple chase at St Albans, they insisted on presenting him with his jacket for luck. He was such a stripling that he required some two or three stone of lead to make up the weight, and although his horse refused the very first fence, he caught a very large field one by one, and Harrow worshiped him more than ever. Culverthorpe, Prospero and Tomboy were among his Tilbury mounts, but the old man left off on the wrong side both in this and hunter-dealing. ”

“ It is rather more than thirty years since he came out, and soon went right up to the top of the tree, and with “Jem Robinson” at Newmarket, and “Jem Mason” in the Vale of Aylesbury, it might well be called the riding “era of the Jameses.’” One of this splendid pair still lives at nearly three score and ten, on the scene of his old triumphs, and the other has just been taken from amongst us, after a long and weary illness, while still in his riding prime.
He was born at Stilton and being the son of a horse-dealer, he, as a matter of course, became an infant Centaur very early in life. ”