JOHN GULLY. 77 



After this Mr. Gully became confederate with the ill-fated "Bobby" 

 Eidsdale, a man of the Mellish and Mytton type, the gallant- 

 hearted, generous owner of Merton, where at one time he kept a 

 hundred head of blood-stock, besides hunters and farm horses. With 

 Little Red Rover, of whom he had first the half and then the whole. 

 Gully ran second to Priam for the Derby. Thus step by step did he 

 mount the ladder of his ambition, and having purchased Upper Hare 

 Park from that lover of athletic sports, the late Lord Rivers, who 

 refused, out of respect for Gully's character, to take anything for the 

 stock and implements upon it, our hero removed to Newmarket. As 

 yet, although Mr. Gully was one of the heaviest bettors on the turf, 

 he had won very few of the great races, and was obliged to content 

 himself with the distinction of having run second for the Derby and 

 the St. Leger ; his perseverance and knowledge, however, shortly met 

 with their due reward, inasmuch as he won the Derby in 1832 with his 

 confederate's horse, St. Giles, and the St. Leger the same year with his 

 own, Margrave. Gully's fame at " The Comer " was now at its zenith, 

 whilst he and Mr. Ridsdale were betting partners. Rumour averred 

 that they won £60,000 between them on St. Giles for the Derby, and 

 £45,000 on Margrave for the St. Leger, and it was in consequence of 

 a dispute about the Margrave winnings that the Siamese link between 

 them was abruptly severed. Their joint books also showed a balance 

 of £80,000 if Little Red Rover could only have brought Priam to 

 grief for the Derby. There was a joke, too, soon after this time, that 

 Mr. Gully and his friend. Justice, descended upon Cheltenham, and 

 so completely cleaned out the local betting ring that the two did not 

 even think it worth while stopping for the second race day. One of 

 the lesser lights was found wandering moodily about the ring on the 

 next day, and remarked to a sympathiser, "that he was looking for the 

 few half-crowns that Gully and Justice had condescended to leave ! " 



It was in this year, too, that Mr. Gully was returned to the first Re- 

 form Parliament as Member for Pontefract. Writing from Brighton 

 on the 17th of December, 1832, in his "Memoirs," caustic 

 Greville, who has seldom a good word for any one, thus alludes to 

 this episode in Gully's career:— "The borough elections are nearly 

 over and have satisfied the Government. They do not seem to be 

 bad on the whole .... Some very bad characters, however, have been 

 returned ; among the worst, Faithful, here " (Brighton); " Gronow at 

 Stafford; Gully, Pontefract; Cobbett, Oldham — -though I am glad 

 that Cobbett is in Parliament. Gully's history is extraordinary 

 Having become rich he embarked in a great coal specula- 

 tion, which answered beyond his hopes, and his shares soon yielded 

 immense profits. His wife, who was a coarse vulgar woman, in the 

 meantime died, and he afterwards married the daughter of an inn- 

 keeper, who proved as gentlewoman-like as the other had been the 

 reverse, and who is very pretty besides. At the Reform dissolution 

 he was pressed to come forward as candidate for Pontefract, but after 

 some hesitation he declined. Latterly he has taken great interest 



