THE DUKE OF QUEENSBEKRY. 43 



draughts of that famous old Tokay, the remnants of which sold 

 for 100 guineas a-dozen after his death. It is not, however, with 

 his- amatory, but with his sporting exph)its that we have here to 

 deal, and whatever " Old Q's" character may have been in other 

 phases of life, there can be no doubt that he was a generous a_iid 

 enthusiastic sportsman, whose name was never associated with 

 anything that was not straightforward and creditable. His career 

 on the turf was a long and honourable one, and presents many 

 features of interest which are worth recording. Born in 1725, he 

 began at an early age to excite the attention of the sporting and 

 fashionable folk in London and Newmarket. His name was hrst 

 entered in the racing calendar in 1748. At the July Meeting of 

 that year he rode two races on his own horses, Whipper-in and 

 Smoker, winning both. His figure was at that time, and indeed 

 for years afterwards, thin, agile, and admirably adapted for riding. 

 From his first appearance he was acknowledged to be the l)est 

 amateur jockey of his time, and rode his own horses in most of 

 his principal matches. He was an indefatigable mjitch-maker, and 

 had a tower of strength to back him up in his jockey, the famous 

 Dick Goodison. In 1750, being then Earl of March, he won the 

 first of the many eccentric matches with which his name is 

 associated. He and the Earl of Eglinton laid a wager of 1,000 

 guineas with Count Theobald O'Taafe and Mr. Andrew Sprowle, 

 "• that the two former would produce a carriage with four running 

 wheels and with a man in it, to be drawn by four horses nineteen 

 miles in one hour." Wright, the then famous coachbuilder of Long 

 Acre, was deputed to manufacture the " carriage." It was of the 

 lightest possible construction ; the harness was made of the 

 thinnest leather, covered with silk, the man sat on a seat of leathern 

 straps, cased in velvet, the boxes of the wheels were provided with 

 tins of oil, to drop slowly on the axle-trees for one hour. By an 

 ingenious contrivance the traces ran into boxes with springs when 

 any of them hung back, thereby preventing the traces from getting 

 under the horses' legs. The race was begun at seven o'clock on the 

 morning of the 29th of August, 1750, near the Six-mile House on 

 Newmarket Heath. The course lay between the Warren and 

 Rubbing-houses, through the Running Grap, where, turning to tlie 

 right, the vehicle was drawn three times round a corded piece of 

 ground of four miles in circumference, and then back to the 

 stall ing-post. The carriage and harness altogether only weighed 

 1^ cwt., and the backers of the horses won easily, the nineteen 

 miles being covered in 53rnin. 27secs. An immense amount of 

 money depended on the result, for it was an age of wagering 

 when men were in the habit of betting recklessly on even the com- 

 monest events of every-day life, and thousands of people assembled 

 to witness the match. In 1757, at the Second Newmarket Spring 

 Meeting, the Earl of March (he did not succeed to the dukedom 

 till 1778) rode the memorable match with the Duke of Hamilton 



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