THE AMATEURS 183 



found, to my utter horror that it was for the purpose of 

 his requesting the grinning black-a-moor that belonged 

 to it ''to lend him some six or seven sacks to take the drag 

 home, for,' said he, '/ am sure the gentleman zvonH take it 

 up to the Gloucester Coffee House a coach P'''^ 



Amateurs driving the coaches were not always recog- 

 nized and, in consequence, received the "tips" intended 

 for the professional coachmen, circumstances which 

 afforded them much joy, and they never tired of relating 

 how they had been "tipped a bob, and returned a bow." 



Sir St. Vincent Cotton, a gifted amateur, eventually 

 joined the ranks of the professionals, and drove one of the 

 Brighton coaches for a living, for so great was his pro- 

 pensity for gambling that he ran through two large 

 fortunes. 



A chara6leristic story is told of how one evening when 

 he and his friends were at dinner they found some 

 maggots among the nuts. Anything able to run or crawl 

 could, in their eyes, be made the subjedl of a bet, and 

 they instantly instituted a maggot race on the result of 

 which the odds ran high. The maggots were ranged in 

 a line, their backers provided with needles to spur them 

 on. The starter gave the word, and the race began amid 

 uproarious excitement. Sir St. Vincent's maggot was 

 the favourite, and seemed safe to win, but the baronet 

 to urge it to fresh endeavours pricked it so vehemently 

 with his needle, that it suddenly curled up and refused 

 to move, so that a rank outsider crept up and won, 

 whereby, so it is said. Sir St. Vincent lost ^30,000. 



Another famous amateur on the Brighton road was 



