228 A HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH TURF. 



everything, which brought with it, more than the others, the flavour of a various life 

 and rushed over from Paris to attend a race meeting before hurrying back to 

 London to upset a Ministry. Of this set Charles Fox was the centre, elegant in his 

 youth as a Macaroni, fat and a trifle slovenly as he grew older, with his great black 

 brows, and big wicked good-natured eyes. With him was that " admirable Crichton," 

 Richard Fitzpatrick, his greatest friend, a dashing soldier, an irresistible spendthrift, 

 and brother to the Earl of Upper Ossory, who bred and owned the chestnut Dorimant, 

 by Olho, one of the finest horses ever raced. Dorimant won the " Great Sweep " of 

 1776, which was worth 5,200 guineas, four hundred less than Grey Robins next year, 

 but twice as much as Highflyer s two years afterwards. The same owner's Comus was 

 a bay son of Olho, who had been purchased from Mr. "Jockey/' Vernon. The title is 

 still preserved in the name of the Ossory Chestnut Arabian, which stood at Ampthill, 

 in Bedfordshire. With Richard Fitzpatrick and Charles Fox went the " Hare of 

 many friends," and Lord " Bully," the great Bolingbroke's nephew, and many another 

 brilliant creature who helped to give its distinctive character to that roaring, vigorous, 

 unscrupulous, virile time. "Bully" was divorced from the lady who afterwards 

 became Lady Di Beauclerc, and was " thought to be too much in the graces of the 

 beautiful Coventry." He owned Paymaster (by Blank], and Highflyer (by Herod], who 

 had been bred by Sir Charles Bunbury and was afterwards sold to Mr. Tattersall. 

 His name is also illustrated by the Bolingbroke Grey Arabian, sometimes called the 

 Coombe Arabian, and by that Bay Arabian which won a race (B. C. 8st. 7lbs.) at New- 

 market "for African and Arabian horses " at the Second October Meeting in 1771. 



The ladies of this same set were rather a mixture, too. Great ladies were there, 

 fond of horses, or in the wake of husbands, actual or prospective ; and Italian dancers 

 were there, chiefly in the wake of Lord March, who would drive them from town " for 

 the sake of the fresh air." Then came the fashionable blacklegs who were not found 

 out, who belonged to White's or Brooks's, and whom Charles Fox and his friends 

 called " the hounds." Dimly in the background we imagine the common 

 adventurers who had an easier time than now. One modern feature was absent. 

 The professional bookmaker had not arisen in his vociferous glory, and the 

 professional backer was as yet only sketched in the universal brain of Charles Fox, 

 who once, in a late sitting at White's, "planned out a kind of itinerant trade" 

 (Selwyn is writing to Lord Carlisle), "which was going from horse-race to horse-race, 

 and so by knowing the value and speed of all the horses in England to acquire a 

 certain fortune." But neither in that trade nor in any other was a " certain fortune " 



