178 HORSE-RACING IN ENGLAND 



good he did ; though regret for his untimely end 

 on September 21, 1848, may be more than a little 

 modified by the reflection that he was happy, 

 perhaps, in the time of his death, inasmuch as 

 he contemplated returning to the turf, and there 

 is no saying what the result might have been. 

 He could not very well have added to the reputa- 

 tion he had gained by leaving it, and he might 

 very well have met with disaster and with loss 

 both of substance and of fame. 



Sir Joseph Hawley, the ' lucky baronet ' (though 

 indeed he had some very bad luck sometimes) was 

 a curious mixture of the reformer and the bad 

 example. How he proposed but failed to reform 

 both horse-racing and the Jockey Club is an old 

 story and needs no repetition ; and how, though 

 he would denounce ' plunging ' with the fervour 

 of Ecclesiastes, when he was in a reforming mood, 

 he would bet on a scale that made Admiral Rous's 

 hair stand on end, is to be read in biographical 

 sketches. He began racing when he was quite 

 a young man, at Florence ; but cannot be said to 

 have come to the front in England, though he 

 was well known as an astute match-maker, much 

 before the death of Lord George Bentinck. He 



