114 THE JOCKEY CLUB 1750- 



March (afterwards ' Old Q.') at that young nobleman's 

 first appearance on the Turf, when the commoner (on 

 Oroonoko) was beaten by the lord (on the geld- 

 ing Whipper-in), was Thomas Duncombe, Esq., of 

 Helmsley, or Duncombe Park, York. His patronymic 

 had originally been Browne, exchanged for Duncombe, 

 in consequence of a marriage into the family of the 

 Fevershams of Downton. He, of course, belonged to 

 the family at which Pope sneered when he wrote : 



And Helmsley, once proud Buckingham's delight, 

 Slides to a Scrivener or a City knight. 



Not that the origin of ' proud Buckingham ' himself 

 was much to boast of, if the Villiers (favourite of 

 James I.), and not the Bohun, as seems likely, is 

 referred to ; but Pope would have his sneer, in which 

 perhaps there is more point than is apparent at a 

 glance. For it has sometimes been asked, 'Why 

 Scrivener, as there is no proof that the worthy Mr. 

 Browne followed the vocation of a scrivener ? ' But 

 genealogists make out that Thomas Duncombe, M.P. 

 (whose second son, Charles Slingsby Duncombe, of 

 Duncombe Park, Helmsley, York, was grandfather of 

 the first Baron Feversham, of Duncombe Park, born 

 1784, created Baron 1826), married Miss Sarah 

 Slingsby, maid of honour to Queen Anne and daughter 

 of Sir T. Slingsby, of Scriven (whence the malignant 

 innuendo). However, the Mr. Duncombe with whom 

 we have here to deal was one of the great breeders 

 as well as owners and riders, as witness Bed Kose (by 



