66 THE JOCKEY CLUB 1750- 



and similar publications as W. Sturgeon, ' esquire '), 

 and from the care and prudence with which she had 

 her property tied up and settled on herself and her 

 children (if there should be any little grooms or 

 groomesses), with just 1001. a year for the ' esquire,' 

 if he should survive her. After this, it is said that 

 it was considered almost a personal matter to have a 

 sturgeon (which was a very favourite fish at the time) 

 at dinner, if the Marquess of Eocldngham had ac- 

 cepted an invitation to it. The Marquess had no 

 (legitimate) children, if, indeed, he had a wife (and 

 apparently he had abstained from that expensive 

 luxury for reasons, according to Sir N. W. Wraxall, 

 which the great surgeon John Hunter would have 

 commended highly), so that with him, who died in 

 July 1782, the title became extinct and his estates 

 (on the principle that * he that hath to him shall be 

 given ') passed to his nephew, Lord Fitzwilliam. The 

 Jockey Club would be well off with many more 

 members like the second Marquess of Eockingham. 

 He betted freely, it is true ; but it is a question 

 whether he would ever have sent out ' commissions,' 

 even if there had been any organised ' ring ' in his 

 day. 



Loed Sondes of the list is apparently that Lewis 

 Monson who is understood to have taken the addi- 

 tional name of Watson in compliance with the desire 

 of his benefactor, the third Lord (second Marquess of) 

 Eockingham. He was born in 1727, created Baron 



