SOME EARLY VICTORIAN OWNERS. 



501 



good practice as a surgeon at Rugeley. Hitherto there had been nothing 

 remarkable about him except that the naturally amiable disposition of a child 

 had occasionally been obscured by cruel experiments upon animals. He married the 

 daughter of an Indian officer with a small property of her own, and of his five 

 children all but the eldest died in convulsions a few weeks after their birth. His 

 wife's own income was only to last her lifetime, so he insured her life for ,13,000, 

 and nine months afterwards she was dead. Within another three months he was 

 trying to effect heavy insurances on the life of his brother, a confirmed drunkard, 



"Virago " by " Pyrrhtis the First " (1851). 



to the enormous extent of ,80,000. Meanwhile he lived handsomely; for in 1851 

 he cleared nearly ,4,000 over DoiMs victory in the Leamington Stakes ; he then 

 netted ,3,000 with Goldfindcr in the Shrewsbury Handicap, more at Wolverhampton, 

 and nearly ,7,000 at Warwick, all on the same horse. At Manchester he won again 

 with Trickstress, and Doubt did even better in the autumn. His genuine love of 

 racing then degenerated into a passion for gambling, which was not satisfied with his 

 own horses, but extended to backing other people's. His agents began to hedge ; 

 the bookmakers laid him less than market price ; the money-dealers got their hands 



