Memoirs of Sir Charles Bunbury, 



1821. 



racer. An occurrence relative to this horse, 

 may serve to initiate the readers of the 

 Monthly Magazine, in a certain branch of 

 the mysteries and morality of the turf. 

 Bellario in 1770, met that immortal kill- 

 devil £clipse, at York, and was, in course, 

 beaten, even distanced by him. Never- 

 theless Sir Charles Bunbury, immediately 

 after the race, challenged O'Kelly to run 

 Bellario against Eclipse, a single mile for 

 five hundred guineas. Now Sir Charles 

 could have no probable expectation of win- 

 ning this match, but he might of winning 

 money upon it, by betting large sums 

 against his own horse, provided the rate of 

 betting would admit of it ; and granting 

 his horse to be fairly run, there is no breach 

 of honour, custom, or propriety in such 

 a case. However, O'Kelly, for some rea- 

 son of state, declined the match ; and in 

 all probability, Sir Charles made the ofler 

 hastily and without consideration. His 

 next favourite stallion was Diomed, a large 

 and powerful horse, which had won him the 

 first Derby stakes at Epsom, in 1780, and 

 which finished its career in Virginia, at be- 

 tween thirty and forty years of age. Sir 

 Charles was the breeder of the famous 

 Highflyer, but unluckily sold hira a year- 

 ling. He also won with his celebrated 

 mare Eleanor, the renewed Derby stakes 

 of ihe first year of the present century, 

 the only instance in which they had been 

 ^roD by a filly ; with the additional circum- 

 stance that in the same week, Eleanor, 

 ■won the Oaks stakes also. This favour- 

 ite mare was a daughter of Whiskey, gran d- 

 son of Eclipse. To particularize only the 

 first rate horses, out of the vast number 

 bred and trained at Barton, during so long 

 a period, after Whiskey, Sorcerer became 

 the crack stallion of that stud ; a horse of 

 great size and powers, and one of the best 

 runners of his day, both with respect to 

 speed and continuance, but probably the for- 

 mer predominated. He is one of the highest 

 and best bred racers of the time, descended 

 in equal degrees, from those purest sources 

 of mir racing blood, theDarley and Godol- 

 phin Arabians. From this horse have 

 sprung nearly all those celebrated racers, 

 which of late years have been productive 

 of 80 much fame and emolument to their 

 proprietor, and who through Sorcerer, 

 must have netted, to calculate moderately, 

 above ten thousand pounds. For Thunder- 

 bolt, perhaps the best son of Sorcerer, at 

 three years old. Sir Charles Bunbury re- 

 fuged three thousand guineas, losing him 

 afterwards in the following singular and 

 unfortunate manner. The horse by night, 

 in his loose stable, hitched one of his 

 hinder feet in his headstall, as is supposed 

 In the attempt to rub his head, and being 

 unable to disentangle it, in his violent 

 •'•""OTT'^. Ijcat himself nearly to pieces, 

 and being; found in the montingp in that de- 



435 



plorable state, was immediately shot. The 

 fame of his brother Smolensko is so recent, 

 and he was so attractive of public attention 

 beyond any other race horse, that nothing 

 need be said of him here, beyond a note of 

 his winnings, which were five thousand 

 five hundred gfuineas in sweepstakes, al- 

 though he never started after three years 

 old. Having run at Newmarket previously 

 to the Epsom Meeting, his proprietor re- 

 fused four thousand guineas for this horse. 

 Within these few years, warned by the in- 

 creasing infirmities of age. Sir Charles had 

 been gradually quitting his turf eng^age- 

 ments, adhering chiefly to the business of 

 the breeding stud, leaving, however, seve- 

 ral nominations for sweepstakes at New- 

 market and Epsom, which are consequently 

 voided by his decease ; for the same reason 

 he had relinquished his annual attendance 

 at the races of Epsom, Ascot and Egham. 

 Sir Charles Bunbury died in the fifty- 

 eighth year of his racing course, without a 

 single vacant year, a longer period proba- 

 bly than that of the celebrated old Framp- 

 ton, emphatically styled the father of the 

 turf: leaving behind him a character and 

 example essentially and gloriously difierent 

 from that of his notorious predecessor. Sir 

 Charles had acted as steward of the Jockey 

 Club, at Newmarket, nearly half a century ; 

 and in the delicate aflair of Escape's race, 

 in 1791, evinced a most honorable and in- 

 dependent spirit, whether or not his judg- 

 ment might have been correct, is matter cer- 

 tainly of considerable doubt, as will appear 

 by a discussion of the question, some years 

 afterwards, in the Sporting Magazine. His 

 liberality and kindness of heart were well 

 displayed in the good-natured and consola- 

 tory answer which he gave to an unfortu- 

 nate gentleman, his debtor to the amoutit 

 of fifteen hundred pounds, who subsequent- 

 ly embraced the desperate resolution of 

 stepping aside. In the mode by which he 

 chose to distinguish himself he was emi- 

 nently successful •, no one more popular, 

 or more generally acceptable. His opinion 

 was always sought and respected, usually 

 decisive. His plan of betting had nothing 

 of the extravagance of adventure in it ; on 

 the contrary, his nearly invariable rule was, 

 safe play and moderate gains ; and he was 

 accustomed to smile at the newspaper and 

 tittle tattle accounts of his splendid acqui- 

 sitions by betting upon Smolensko at Epsom, 

 on which race his whole risk or profit 

 barely amounted to five hundred pounds. 

 He was often blamed for trusting to the 

 jockey-ship of his own stable-boys in races 

 of considerable interest, preferably to the 

 first rate professors of that art j but he 

 knew, pretty accurately, what his horses 

 were able to perform, and had a choice 

 where to place his confidence. He bent 

 the whole mental force which he ponsessed 

 to this enchanting avocation. Notwith- 

 standing 



