36 JOHN BAYttTOti STARKEY, 



said concerning the greater injury done to the repute of 

 the turf by men of his weak type, than by even the most 

 designing scoundrels. Mr. Starkey kept few servants, 

 neither hunters nor carriage-horses, and saw no company, 

 and yet contrived to get rid of a princely fortune. I am 

 satisfied myself that he would as readily have got rid 

 of it over half-a-dozen cows, or some sheep and pigs, or 

 even a dog, as over horses and racing, if he had only the 

 coveted assistance of his money-lending friends. He 

 did more harm to the turf by his ill example than racing 

 ever did to him. Men such as he, and Forbes Bentley, 

 and Wyndham of Fellbrigg Hall, and, in earlier times, 

 Mytton, who ' set his shirt-tails on fire to drive away the 

 hiccups,' did more injury to racing than all the sharp 

 practitioners of a lower type. The late Lord Maidstone 

 is another instance. A few years ago he fell into the 

 hands of very obliging friends, who gave him, in exchange 

 for bills for 2,000, a box of cigars of the full value of 

 a five-pound note, quality and condition unguaranteed. 

 Mr. Starkey, early doomed to the fate of an unsuspect- 

 ing and foolish man, lived only to feed the rapacity of 

 sharks ; and in the end had to leave his wife and family 

 to the tender mercies of a rude world, whilst, hopelessly 

 ruined and despondent, he himself sought refuge in a 

 distant land. 



But I must have done with moralizing. My readers 

 will be better pleased if I can give them a few personal 

 reminiscences of this remarkable, if unwise, character. 

 His very dress ' proclaimed the man.' It was scarcely 

 neat enough to deserve the epithet of ' horsey,' if it 

 aspired to that description. Imagine a drab -coloured 

 frock-coat of coarse fabric, a very long waistcoat, 

 breeches and gaiters of the same material, or long black 

 boots with hunting-spurs, the whole shadowed by a billy- 



