20 FAMOUS EACma MEN. 



some sort of office under Government in Ireland, but immediately 

 on the death, of his father he seems to have decided on his future 

 coui'se of life, from which he never afterwards deviated. He threw 

 up his office, abandoning all connection with the Government, and 

 thenceforth divided his time between his parliamentary duties and 

 the turf, of which he was passionately fond. His ancestral home was 

 Barton Hall, near Bury St. Edmunds, and doubtless the contiguity 

 of this seat to Newmarket may have had something to do with 

 influencing his early tastes. To finish at once with his private and 

 political life, it may be mentioned that he was twice married, first 

 in 1762 to Lady Sarah Lennox, daughter of Charles, second Duke of 

 Lennox, this marriage being dissolved by Act of Parliament four- 

 teen years later, for reasons not very creditable to the lady, who 

 immediately afterwards married the Hon. George Napier, and by 

 him became the mother of the future historian of the Peninsular 

 war, and his still more famous brother, the conqueror of Scinde. Sir 

 Charles's second wife sur\dved him, and is described as a lady of sin- 

 gular beauty and most excellent and benevolent character, though 

 curiously enough her existence is ignored by that generally trust- 

 worthy authority. Sir Bernard Burke. In politics Sir Charles was a 

 Whig, a firm ally and supporter of Charles James Fox, and one 

 of the most enthusiastic opponents of the slave trade. On succeed- 

 ing to the title he took a town house in Priory Gardens, Whitehall, 

 and retained it for thirty years, when he removed to Pall Mall, 

 keeping his second house till his death. And now, having men- 

 tioned sufficient to introduce the gentleman familiarly to the 

 reader, let us turn to his long turf career. 



From his boyhood Sir Charles seems to have had a passionate 

 fondness for horses, and in 1773, as soon as he was settled down 

 comfortably in his new possessions, he commenced to form a stud. 

 The young baronet knew just enough of the business before him to 

 be aware that more experience than he yet possessed was necessary to 

 preserve him from the shoals and quicksands abounding on the Heaths 

 of Newmarket and Ascot and the Downs of Epsom, so for advice 

 and assistance he went to his friend, Mr. Crofts, of Norfolk, the 

 owner of that famous racer and stallion, Brilliant, by Old Crab. 



Within two years Sir Charles had gradually acquired a considerable 

 stud, and by 1767 was looked upon as one of the leading sportsmen, 

 both at Newmarket and at all the minor meetings in the country. 

 The first really famous horse that he possessed was Bellario, a son of 

 the above-named Brilliant, who had the misfortune to be contemporary 

 with Eclipse, and had therefore to meet what a writer of the time 

 calls " the terrible, matchless, super-equine Eclipse, which, to use 

 an old Newmarket phrase, never failed in a single instance to give 

 'em all their gruel and the need of a spy-glass to see which way he 

 went, and how far he was off." Good and shrewd judge as Bunbury 

 generally was, he seems to have lost his head over this horse of his. 

 He would never believe that there was an animal in training superior 



