io6 The Post and the Paddock. 



postilion liveries formed a turn-out very little inferior 

 to those over which he held sway at the Pavilion 

 stables. Sir John came of age in 1780, and his riches 

 and extravagance in that year were so notorious that 

 even Dr. Johnson wrote a poem on him, which he 

 repeated four years afterwards with unwonted spirit 

 to his attendants, as he lay on his own majestic 

 deathbed. Croker's edition, vol. viii. p. 414, gives the 

 seven stanzas at full length ; and it is not a little 

 quaint to find the great philosopher ironically exhort- 

 ing the great whip of that day to 



" Call the Betseys, Kates, and Jennies, 

 All the names which banish care ; 

 Lavish of your grandsire's guineas, 

 Show the spirit of an heir ! 



" Loosen'd from the minor's tether, 



Free to mortgage or to sell, 

 Wild as wind and light as feather, 



Bid the sons of thrift farewell," &c. &C. 



The best pen-and-ink sketch of Brighton on a race 

 morning, when the Prince was in his meridian, and it 

 was crowded with "tandems, beautiful women, and 

 light hussars," is thus given in Raikes's Diary : 



" In those days, the Prince made Brighton and Lewes Races the 

 gayest scene of the year in England. The Pavilion was full of guests, 

 and the Steyne was crowded with all the rank and fashion from London. 

 The ' legs' and bettors, who had arrived in shoals, used all to assemble 

 on the Steyne, at an early hour, to commence their operations on the 

 first day, and the buzz was tremendous, till Lord Foley and Mellish, 

 the two great confederates of that day, would approach the ring, and 

 then a sudden silence ensued, to await the opening of their books. They 

 would come on perhaps smiling, but mysteriously, without making any 

 demonstration. At last Mr. Jerry Cloves would say, ' Come, Mr. 

 Mellish, will you light the candle and set us agoing?' Then if the 

 Master of Buckle would say, ' I'll take three to one about Sir Solomon,' 

 the whole pack opened, and the air resounded with every shade of odds 

 and betting. About half an hour before the departure for the hill, the 

 Prince himself would make his appearance in the crowd. I think I see 

 him now, in a green jacket, a white hat, and light nankeen pantaloons 

 and shoes, distinguished by his high-bred manner and handsome person. 

 He was generally accompanied by the late Duke of Bedford, Lord 

 Jersey, Charles Wyndham, Shelley, Brummell, M. Day, Churchill, and 



