Burke Manuscript

Burke Manuscript: Page 151

Transcript

Another who has been laid low, was not a Pilgrim, but a man of the sixties. All theatricals from that date knew him well, from Hoskins, Hall, Jones, Dunn, to Mesdames Jenny Nye, Cissy Matthews, and the rest of the damsels, and some of a later generation. Soon after the late John W. Oram became proprietor of the Criterion, succeeding John E. Coker, Mr Baylie, became his manager, later on landlord. He was, as it were, the last link of the Oram regime, which once held the fort, against all comers, at the Clarendon, City, White Hart, Royal. John had a pleasant bonhommie [sic] about him, was always ready for a joke and was not bad at repartee, altogether a genial old boy whose peculiarities will be remembered with a relish. He knew some little of what was going on when Harry Oram swore by Sir Tatton Sykes, and Harry Prince was a hurdle jock of a former generation, when Lashine[?] and Calumny were household words, and the Bush Inn swept the course. Times are changed and a new generation of owners, trainers, and jocks knowing not the Cator and the Peer, Moorhorse and Betty Martin, Stafford and Ultima, Tom White and Netsail, Martelli and the first Sultan, Viscount, Phoebe, Ladybird, Robson, now rule in place of the old departed ones. Thus the world goes round. Why Musket was not heard of, barely Traducer.

Traducer before he got his name up once changed hands, I have heard, for 40. Viscount belonged to a very early arrival, Mr Leech, a nice, pleasant fellow. He built the stables near Warners, now used by the Tramway. Phoebe was a fine mare of Duppa’s. Traducer was I think imported by Mr David Innes. He was a pleasant sort of man, and for a time lived in a nice place on the Papanui Road, when he married Miss Kate Williams, sister of C.H. Williams. She had a well known hack Silvertail.