200 THE JOCKEY CLUB 1773- 



mental in establishing, and which received its name 

 from him) in 1787 with the immortal Sir Peter 

 Teazle, commonly called Sir Peter tout href, and not 

 only owned but bred by him. This of itself would be 

 enough to place the twelfth Earl of Derby on the 

 topmost pinnacle of fame as a member of the Jockey 

 Club and a supporter of the Turf. He was twice 

 married ; first to Lady Elizabeth Hamilton (from 

 whom he was divorced in the orthodox style of the 

 early members of the Jockey Club, whether because 

 she not unnaturally objected to cock-fighting in the 

 drawing-room, a practice to which the noble Earl was 

 addicted, or for a more potent reason, more cognisable 

 by law), sister and heiress of her brothers, the seventh 

 and eighth Dukes of Hamilton ; and secondly, to the 

 celebrated actress, Miss Ellen Farren, whose 'Lady 

 Teazle,' no doubt, suggested to the noble Earl a por- 

 tion of some of the names or a whole name given to 

 some of his horses, and who, having more than Lady 

 Elizabeth Hamilton can have had to gain by such 

 a matrimonial alliance, was more ready perhaps to 

 smile upon cock-fighting even in the drawing-room. 

 This lord had a pleasant, easy, reckless, selfish way 

 with him, according to Horace Walpole, who tells us 

 that the Earl ' nearly killed his cook with late 

 suppers,' and, when the heart-broken chef remons- 

 trated (at the same time admitting that the ' place ' 

 was in other respects quite unexceptionable), bade the 

 poor man be content and put down ' wear and tear of 



