I 9 4 



A HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH TURF. 



the " Tale of a Tub," but " Gulliver" was yet unborn, and its author's fiery pen, that 

 had served the Tories so well, was rusting in a dull Berkshire vicarage at Upper 

 Letcombe, near Wantage, whence Vanessa received most melancholy letters in 1714. 

 Far more amusing must have been that bright and brilliant correspondence which 

 Lady Rich and Mr. Pope were getting two years later from Lady Mary Wortley 

 Montague, then very much enjoying herself abroad. The Countess of Bristol, too, 

 was reading strange ideas about inoculation for the smallpox, in this same lively 

 lady's letters, to her son Lord Hervey, who owned several fine racehorses, and who 



By permission of H.R.H. Prince Christian. 



The Duke of Bridge-water's " Star." 



By Seymour, 



was to marry lovely Mary Lepell, and support Walpole heartily, much against the 

 wishes of his pretty wife. By 1719 Addison was dead, and, as if bursting from the 

 restraint of his kindly irony and polished criticism, men on both sides of the Channel 

 began plunging into speculation of the utmost recklessness. While the Mississippi 

 schemes of John Law were wrecking fortunes in Paris, the great South Sea Bubble 

 was being blown to its fullest dimensions throughout England, with a riot of gam- 

 bling in stocks and shares that even outdid the insane railway mania started by 

 George Hudson in 1846. Universal ruin followed the inevitable crash, and many a 

 racing stable was dispersed for good, when Aislabie, Chancellor of the Exchequer, 



