214 THE JOCKEY CLUB 1773 



CHAPTER IX 



THE COMMONERS 



Sir J. Byng, who won a Jockey Club Plate with 

 Morisco in 1824, was of course the gallant General 

 and Field-Marshal Sir John Byng, created Baron 

 Strafford in 1839 and Earl of Strafford in 1847, father 

 of the late Earl (George Stevens Byng), who was also 

 a member of the Jockey Club. Sir John was a very 

 great racing man, unfortunately of the betting per- 

 suasion, whereby hangs a tale of a long friendship 

 which should have had a nobler origin ; for it is said 

 that his long friendship with the late General Peel 

 — another regrettable example of the betting persua- 

 sion — began when the latter, being a subaltern, dined 

 at the mess of a regiment of which the former was 

 colonel. During dinner the colonel expressed a desire 

 to take 50 to 1 about a certain horse for the St. Leger, 

 and was electrified by hearing the stranger-subaltern, 

 whose presence he had not noticed, take him up with 

 the ready response of ' I will lay you fifty hundreds to 

 one, sir.' Whether the future Field-Marshal accepted 

 the offer, and was drawn towards the subaltern by the 



