18 THE JOCKEY CLUB 1750- 



CHAPTEE II 



THE DUKES 



According to the practice which still prevails in some 

 (perhaps benighted) countries of paying respect to 

 Eoyalty (which is but dust and ashes), precedence has 

 been given, in defiance of the alphabet, to the titles 

 of Cumberland and [York]. 



We have to deal with two Dukes of Cumberland. 



The first is William (second son of George the 

 Second and uncle of George the Third) , the ' Hero ' 

 or the ' Butcher ' of Culloden, according to individual 

 taste and political proclivity. 



To prove his membership of the Jockey Club it is 

 sufficient to state that in 1754 he won a Jockey Club 

 Plate with the celebrated Marske (sire of the more 

 celebrated Eclipse), and ran unsuccessfully for another 

 with his grey horse Crab. He was the first Eoyal 

 member of the Jockey Club, which from that day to 

 this has never lacked a royalty of some kind, if we 

 except some half a dozen years in the first half of 

 Queen Victoria's reign, after which the Eoyal House 

 of Holland came to the rescue, in memory, perhaps, 



