THE FIRST OF THE PLUNGERS. 



There was unusual excitement among Turfites at the First New- 

 market Spring Meeting of 1789, for it had become generally 

 known that a young nobleman of large fortune would then make 

 his debut upon the Turf, and it was expected to be a debut of 

 extraordinary splendour. Already the name of Richard, Earl of 

 Barrymore, Viscount Buttevant and Baron Barry, had acquired 

 some notoriety. His Eton contemporaries told how he had 

 made his first appearance at that famous school with a tJiojisaiid 

 pounds in his pocket — the gift of his doating grandmother. They 

 told, too, of his adventurous exploits : how he and a schoolfellow 

 went the round of the inns at Windsor and the neighbourhood 

 one dark night — having escaped from tutorial supervision — and 

 changed all the signboards, and how it took weeks to rectify the 

 result of the mischievous prank. A host of other stories of the 

 wildness and extravagance of the young Earl were rife, and the 

 hearts of the sharpers and blacklegs of London were jubilant at 

 the prospect of plucking so promising a pigeon. At the time he 

 made his first appearance in the Racing Calendar Lord Barry- 

 more was but nineteen years of age. He had a rent-roll of 

 12,000/. a year, and a large sum in ready cash awaiting his 

 majority. His estate at Wargrave, in Berkshire, was one of the 

 finest in England, and there was not a young nobleman or 

 commoner in the kingdom with more brilliant prospects. Nor 

 was he without the gifts of mind and body to enable him to 

 thoroughly enjoy his magnificent patrimony. He was witty and 

 accomplished, he had an excellent memory, considerable oratori- 

 cal powers, and remarkable facility in writing both prose and 

 verse. His physical gifts were equally striking. He was six feet 

 two inches in height, large framed, but thin, and wonderfully 

 active. As a jockey he had no superior among the gentlemen of 

 England, and his knowledge of horseflesh was, for one so young, 

 surprising. It was only natural, then, that with such tastes and 

 proclivities Lord Barrymore should be attracted to the Turf. 

 And he was determined to cut a big figure there. 



