CHAPTERS FROM TURF HISTORY 



there can hardly be a more signal example of the 

 futility of a last testament than that which is 

 exhibited in the will of the illustrious nobleman 

 who died in 1773. He left his property to his 

 godson, Philip Stanhope, but saddled it with 

 one of the most remarkable conditions which the 

 Registry of Wills enshrines. The will provided 

 " that in case my said godson, Philip Stanhope, 

 should at any time hereafter keep or be concerned 

 in the keeping of any race-horse or race-horses, or 

 pack or packs of hounds, or reside one night at 

 Newmarket, that infamous seminary of iniquity and 

 ill manners, during the course of the races there, 

 or shall resort to the said races, or shall lose in 

 any one day at any games or bet whatever the 

 sum of £500 there ; and in any of the cases afore- 

 said it is my express will that he, my said godson, 

 shall forfeit and pay out of my estate the sum of 

 ;f5,ooo to and for the use of the Dean and Chapter 

 of Westminster." With a sardonic sneer the 

 testator avowed that he had selected these reverend 

 parties to enforce this clause in his will, because 

 he felt sure that, if the penalty should be incurred, 

 they would not be remiss in claiming it ! 



Lord Chesterfield would have been sadly dis- 

 appointed in his heir, who, according to Madame 

 D'Arblay, had " as little good breeding as any 

 man I ever met " ; but if his distaste for the race- 

 course and the card-table was genuine, it was 

 indeed the irony of fate that his title and estates 

 should in the second succession devolve upon one 

 who was a master of hounds, who captured the 

 chief prizes of the Turf, who gave his name to 

 important races at Newmarket and Goodwood, and 



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