BRITISH TURF. 19 



of the defendant's conduct, the jury gave a verdict 

 for the plaintiff, with £150 damages only. The de- 

 fendant was a pubhcan at Ludlow. The learned 

 judge, Mr. Justice Rooke, reprobated the conduct 

 of the defendant very highly, and said, while horse 

 racing was continued, such behaviour should be 

 severely punished, and was by no means an action 

 for mere nominal damages, even though the jury 

 should not be satisfied that the horse received the 

 injury which occasioned his death, by the defen- 

 dant's means. 



Dennis O'Kelly, Esq., or, as he was sometimes 

 called. Captain O'Kelly, a name famihar to sports- 

 men, died at his house in Piccadilly in 1787. 



This successful turf adventurer was born in Ire- 

 land, of humble parentage, and at one period of his 

 life no man ever experienced more adversity than 

 fell to his lot. After his release from the Fleet 

 prison, where he had been confined for debt, the 

 tide of fortune turned, and from this period, he 

 continued a career of the greatest prosperity. At 

 the period of which we write, the higher classes 

 were greatly addicted to gaming, and for sums 

 which would now appear incredible ; the amounts 

 also for which they matched their horses, and 

 betted, were proportionally large. O'Kelly plunged 

 at once into the very vortex of this infatuation, 

 and both at the play tables, and on the turf, 

 met with a success which made him at once the 



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