1835 THE PKINCE OF WALES AND THE DUKES 181 



whom the least promising (being no sportsman, or, at 

 any rate, no devotee of horse-racing), namely, the 

 Duke of Clarence, turned out in the end to be the 

 Jockey Club's best friend. 



The Prince of Wales, whose membership of the 

 Club, dating probably from the moment that he ar- 

 rived at years of indiscretion, is first publicly attested 

 in the records of 1786, when, being just twenty-four 

 years of age, he ran second with Anvil (purchased by 

 him in October 1784 from Mr. Parker, who was after- 

 wards Lord Boringdon) to Mr. "Wyndham with Drone, 

 for a Jockey Club Plate, had three periods of display 

 upon the Turf. The first, from 1784 to 1786, was 

 brought to a premature and ignominious close (for a 

 time) by pecuniary embarrassments, from which Par- 

 liament released him (again for a time) by paying 

 his debts and increasing his income ; the second, 

 commencing from his reappearance with a clean slate 

 and a larger revenue, was terminated in 1791-92 by 

 what is known as 'the Escape affair,' when the Prince, 

 who very honourably and pluckily stuck by his jockey, 

 Sam Chifney the elder, accused (as the Prince be- 

 lieved, very unjustly) of riding Escape ' booty,' as it 

 was called, was virtually ' warned off ' Newmarket 

 Heath by the Jockey Club, represented by the three 

 stewards, Sir Charles Bunbury, Mr. Pialph Dutton, 

 and Mr. Panton (the ' polite ' Tommy Panton) : for 

 Sir Charles, the mouth-piece, intimated to His Pioyal 

 Highness that, if he continued to employ Chifney, no 



