272 



A HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH TURF. 



Mr. Thomas Grosvenor. 



this mad Irishman have been, and 

 to be paralleled without much diffi- 

 culty from our own time. In the 

 society he amused, and guided by 

 such excellent mentors as " Old 

 Q.," or Charles Fox, the Prince of 

 Wales went on the Turf, though he 

 did not stay on it long. I have 

 seen the manuscript draft of the 

 Prince's Stakes, which was drawn 

 up in 1784, and placed in the rooms 

 of the Jockey Club. " Colts 8 st. 

 3 Ibs , fillies 8 st. New Flat. To 

 be run at the first and second 

 Spring Meetings of 1785, 6 and 7. 

 Sweepstakes of 200 guineas, half- 

 forfeit." The list of entries is 



performances, was named a famous 

 racer and sire. It is to his credit 

 that he produced such good things as 

 " The Merry Wives " and " Every 

 Man in his Humour." Selwyn writes 

 rather testily of " that tt^urdi Lord 

 Barrymore . . . playing the fool 

 in three or four different characters." 

 He used to go about with a train of 

 pugilists, and in one way and another 

 ran through ,300,000 and encum- 

 bered the family estates. He was 

 killed in rather an odd way by the 

 explosion of a gun while he was con- 

 ducting some French prisoners from 

 Rye to Deal, in his capacity as an 

 officer in the Militia. Not an un- 

 attractive figure, on the whole, must 



Viscount Belgrave. 



