THE REAL OWNER OF SPYE PARK 35 



horseflesh a statement borne out by what his chief 

 creditor himself has told me. And yet for this trivial 

 sum his ancestral estate of Spye Park passed from the 

 hands of this misguided man to those of his trusted 

 friend Padwick, who, on the same authority, I hear, 

 ultimately sold it for 275,000, leaving its owner without 

 sufficient means to pay his debts, beside a small annuity 

 previously secured for his widow and children. I believe 

 that at one time 300,000 was offered and refused for 

 the estate. The offer, I am perhaps correct in saying, 

 was made on behalf of the Prince of Wales before the 

 purchase of Sandringham was decided upon. At the 

 time its owner proudly said, ' He would never go out of 

 it till he was carried to the churchyard.' But he thought 

 better of this, or Mr. Padwick did so for him ; for it was 

 the latter who made the bargain for the sale of the 

 property. For a long time before that event, the legend, 



HENRY PADWICK, ESQ., 

 ' SPYE PARK, 



' WILTS,' 



might have been seen blazoned in a defiant, bold hand 

 on all the carts, waggons, etc., on the estate; and every 

 head of cattle, horses, sheep, or swine, had been trans- 

 ferred into the same gentleman's name. Curiously, Mr. 

 Starkey seemed rather proud of this. I know when I 

 was visiting him for some shooting, he pointed the name 

 out to me with an air of great satisfaction, saying : 



' There, they will be safe now.' 



' Yes,' thought I, ' safe enough ; but safe for someone 

 else, not you.' 



This brief history of his career will justify what I have 



