48 fa:\i()l\s kacing men. 



a few years since who remembered well his driving on the course at 

 Brighton just before the great race between his Sancho and the Duke 

 of Cleveland's Pavilion, of which more anon, and raising his white hat 

 ironically to his friends in the Grand Stand, as he sat behind his 

 matchless team of four browns, saying, " If Sancho's beat, I hope 

 some of you will take me for a coachman." As a horseman he was 

 equally eminent, and for three or four seasons he led all the light 

 weights of Leicestershire, Rutlandshire and Yorkshire, when he 

 himself was riding 14st. But, as one of his friends said of him, 

 " he had the art of making a horse do moie than other ridere, 

 and he accustomed them, like himself, to go at evtrything.^^ He 

 was also an enthusiastic patron of the Prize Ring, which at that 

 time was an even more popular sport than horse-racing, and was 

 supported by all the best sportsmen in the land. He made the 

 great match between Pearce ("The Game Chicken ") and John Gully, 

 afterwards M.P. for Pontefract, and, to his honour be it said, com- 

 pelled Gully, much against that hero's will, to give in after he had 

 heen terribly punished by " The Chicken,"' although he (Colonel 

 Mellish) thereby lost a very large sum of money. All such drains 

 upon his purse, however, he could have easily borne and been little 

 the worse had he been contented to stop at these. But, in addition 

 to his great personal expenditure, he must needs " flirt with the 

 elephant's tooth." In other words, he gambled heavily and reck- 

 lessly. It is reported of him that he played for £40,000 at a sitting, 

 nay, that he once staked that sum upon a single thi'ow, and lost! 

 The wealth of Croesus could not have stood such mad extravagance. 

 His establishment, whilst he was at the zenith of his splendour, was 

 teiTific ! He had thirty-eight racehorses in training, seventeen 

 carriage horses, a dozen hunters in Leicestershire, four chargers at 

 Brighton, with hacks innumerable, and, of course, a whole brigade 

 of retainers in his pay. In fact, the colonel made his appearance 

 on the race-ground when in the meridian of his career, in a way 

 never yet imitated or approached. Driving four white horses " in 

 hand," with "outriders" on steeds to match, ridden with harness 

 bridles and holsters at the saddle-bow, his barouche painted in 

 exquisite taste, the handsome colonel was truly the observed of 

 all observers, as whirling up to the Grand Stand, tossing his 

 reins on either hand, and descending, as though no one were 

 looking, in the quietest manner in life, he mounted one of the 

 thoroughbred hacks, led by the saddle-horse groom in the rear 

 of his retinue, habited like the rest of his people in crimson 

 livery, and followed by two other grooms, cantered over the course 

 towards the Rubbing Houses or Warren. His personal appearance, 

 too, was singularly striking. His figure was erect and stalwart — a 

 real Yorkshireman, with the thews and sinews of a mighty athlete. 

 In his dress he was unique. He wore a neat white hat, white trousers, 

 and white silk stockmgs ; his handsome face, too, was white, and, in 

 fact, there was nothing black about him save his curly hair and his 



