218 THE JOCKEY CLUB 1773- 



John Lade, Bart., a brewer (who died in 1747, when the 

 baronetcy became extinct), and inherited the brewer's 

 property, assumed his name, and was himself created 

 a Baronet in 1758, died apparently the very next 

 year, and was succeeded in title and property by 

 Dr. Johnson's young friend. Sir John, the member 

 of the Jockey Club, made a questionable marriage 

 with a certain Mrs. Smith (' off the streets,' according 

 to Pigott), died without issue (at Egham) in 1838, at 

 the age of eighty-one, and the title again became extinct. 

 Sir John had evidently ceased to be a member of the 

 Jockey Club before his death, for his name is not in 

 the official list for 1835. He was remarkable for 

 many things : for his intimacy with the ' First Gentle- 

 man ' Prince of Wales (whose famous hunter Notting- 

 ham had been his, though he did not breed the horse, 

 and whose ' gentleman-coachman ' he was) ; for his 

 skill as a * whip ' (to which, no doubt, he owed his 

 preferment as coachman to the heir to the Throne, 

 and which is said to have been so great that he made a 

 bet to drive the wheels of his i coach ' over a sixpence 

 placed upon the road, and ' realised the stakes ') ; for 

 his riding, whether of horse or mule (and he rode 

 matches on both at Newmarket, once, as we have 

 seen, on Clifden, in 1792, when he was beaten by the 

 young Duke of Bedford on Dragon) ; for being the 

 first person to appear in public in trousers (according 

 to the scroll of Fame) ; and for winning a wager 

 under the following amusing circumstances. He, 



