64 THE JOCKEY CLUB 1750- 



by the Jockey Club in 1758. He was one of those 

 persons who may be said to have greatness thrust 

 upon them, for he was summoned — not exactly like 

 Cincinnatus from the plough, but like himself and 

 others of his day, if not of our own — from the race- 

 course to the post of prime minister, in which capa- 

 city he and his colleagues so acquitted themselves 

 that his political opponents delighted to quote the 

 doggerel of the day to the effect that * The Ministry 

 sleeps, and the Minister's Rocking'em.' He appears 

 to have been strongly of Horace's opinion that ' dulce 

 est desipere in loco ' ; and his favourite ' locus,' when 

 he was not in the north, was Newmarket, where 

 he would indulge in desipience so far, it is said, 

 as to back his goose (feathered) against my Lord 

 Orford's, as well as his horse or horses against any- 

 body else's. He was not a very ' clayver ' man, per- 

 haps, as Shakespeare is said to have been, but he was 

 an honest man, the creature once considered to be 

 * the noblest work of God,' but now very lightly 

 esteemed (because, let us hope, he has become so 

 common). He was a most liberal patron of the Turf, 

 both north and south, and he did his part in the 

 improvement of horse-flesh. He owned at one time 

 or another, but did not breed, the famous Sampson 

 (Mr. Robinson's, but bred by Mr. Preston, 15 -2 hands 

 high, considered gigantic for his time, when combined 

 with such bone as he had), Whistle-jacket (bred by 

 Sir W. Middleton), and Bay Malton (bred by Mrs. 



