-68 A HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH TURF. 



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as his private adviser in most matters connected with his stables. In 1784 they 

 wen: both at Brighton with the notorious Major Manger, and the years immediately 

 ensuing were those when Brighton races became most fashionable. There was 

 bettiii" of every sort and kind, both here and elsewhere, and Lade's large fortune 

 was able to stand the strain no better than that of a much finer man, Hon. Colonel 

 Mellish. 'Mis most famous match was tor 300 guineas a side against the Duke 

 of Bedford, between Clifdoi and Dragon, owners up (15 stone each), Beacon Course, 

 which the Duke won. On another occasion he was so rash as to bet "Old O." that 

 he could produce a champion who would eat more than the Duke's man ; and it is 

 almost unnecessary to say that His Grace of Queensb^rry won "by a pig and an 

 apple pie," as the referee reported As time went on, Lade developed less agreeable 

 proclivities. He once began to calculate the interest on a debt which Charles James 

 Fox was about to pay him after a lucky night at faro, so Charles put the notes back 

 in his pocket, remarking that he always paid his Jew creditors last. This sounds as 

 if Counsellor Lade, of Cannon Park, were of the same family ; for this gentleman, 

 having forsaken the Law for the Turf, displayed a stinginess worthy of Miser Elwes 

 himself, and used to drive alone in his curricle and greys for fifty-seven miles without 

 giving them more than a handful of hay and a few drinks of water. Though he 

 chiefly went for country plates, he owned one good horse in Oatlands, His young 

 namesake was hard put to it before the end to raise any money at all. He sold his 

 estate at Bramber in Sussex, soon after 1780, and assigned his \\Tllesden property 

 to a coachmaker shortly afterwards. In 1788 he was selling a phaeton and greys to 

 Lord Barrymore for ,1,000, and within the next two years he arranged other 

 profitable exchanges of horseflesh between himself and that reckless young nobleman 

 who married Letty Lade's sister at Gretna Green in 1792. 



The fair Letty was hardly likely to assist her husband either by economy or 

 virtue. Letitia Darley was born in Lewknor Lane, St. Giles's, and first " took 

 up with " Sixteen-stringed Jack, a criminal who perished at Tyburn after he had 

 taught her such bad language that she was conspicuous even in those foul-mouthed 

 clays. She knew more about horses than any woman of her time, and once offered 

 to drive eight miles over Newmarket Heath against "another lady" for five 

 hundred guineas. She was also a remarkable cook, which may have put the 

 finishing touch to her attractions in the eyes of Sir John, who, after he married her, 

 promised a friend " a trout spotted all over like a coach-dog, a fillet of veal as white 

 as alabaster, a pantaloon cutlet, and pancakes as large as coachwheels, so help me." 



