258 



A HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH TURF. 



both for his own Royal person and for his courtiers. Horace Walpole once saw him 

 playing at cards, and records his " resemblance to the prodigal son and the fatted 

 calf in one." The benefits he conferred upon the Turf are, however, beyond the 

 reach of any sneer. His efforts to improve racing, said a contemporary admirer, just 

 after his death, were not effected " without an immensity of expense and an incredi- 

 ble succession of losses to the sharks, Greeks and blacklegs of that time, by whom 

 his Royal Highness was surrounded and of course incessantly pillaged. Having 

 however, in the greatness of his mind, the military maxim of ' persevere and 

 conquer,' he was not deterred from the object of his pursuit, till, having just become 



possessed of the best stock, best blood, 

 and most numerous stud in the kingdom, 

 beating his opponents at all points, he 

 suddenly passed to that bourne from 

 whence no traveller returns, an irreparable 

 loss to the Turf, and universally lamented 

 by the kingdom at large." 



Three other breeders, Lord Clermont, 

 Lord Egremont, and Lord Grosvenor 

 deserve mention at the same time as the 

 Duke of Cumberland. Of Lord Gros- 

 venor I have already spoken, and of his 

 horses I shall have more to say later. 

 Lord Egremont was always believed by 

 Horace Walpole to have jilted his great- 

 niece Lady Charlotte Maria Waldegrave, 

 who became later Duchess of Grafton. At 

 the time she was "eight and twenty, handsome, and has between twenty and thirty thou- 

 sand a year," says the indignant Horace. Mrs. Delany thinks that the engagement was 

 broken off owing to his attachment to Lady Melbourne, and Walpole's only comment 

 was that in that case he was " a most worthless young fellow," a characterisation which 

 was far from being merited. His wealth came from Lord Thomond, whose house at 

 Newmarket I mentioned in the Stuart period, and he more than justified its great 

 traditions, for before he died in his eighty-sixth year, in 1837, he had bred Golianna, 

 the gamest racer ever seen, though Waxy beat him ; had won five Derbys with 

 Assassin, Hannibal, Cardinal Beaufort, Election, and La/>dog, and as many Oaks with 



Richard, Earl of Grosvenor. 



