1773 THE SIRS 93 



and is called indifferently the Compton Barb and the 

 Sedley Grey Arabian. As Sir Charles died in 1778, 

 of course he had no chance of winning either the Derby 

 or the Oaks ; nor does he seem to have run for the race 

 which, ever since 1778 (included), has been known as 

 the Doncaster St. Leger. 



Sir John Shelley, of Michel Grove and Mares- 

 field Park, Sussex, is the fifth Baronet, whose member- 

 ship of the Jockey Club is proved by his running for 

 a Jockey Club Plate in 1774 and (with the bay filly 

 Everlasting, bred by him, dam of the famous Sky- 

 scraper, that won the Derby of 1789 for the youthful 

 Duke of Bedford) in 1779. He succeeded his father 

 in 1771. He was M.P., P.O., Clerk of the Pipe, &c, 

 and died in 1783. He came of a racing strain 

 maternally (for his father had married first a Scawen 

 and then a Pelham) ; he it; was who brought (by 

 marriage) the Maresfield property into the family ; 

 and he must have been the ' Jack ' Shelley of whom 

 we read in Jesse's ' Selwyn ' and who (about 1763, 

 when there seems to have been more of the sporting 

 spirit about than there is now) is said to have won a 

 foot-race-match (at Oatlands or Newmarket), for 

 20 guineas a side, ' with his hands tied behind his 

 back.' Michel Grove has become a household word, 

 or two household words, among lovers of horse-racing; 

 but the sixth Baronet (son and namesake of the fifth), 

 to whom we shall come anon, was the great horse- 

 racer, winner of the Derby with Phantom and Cedric. 



