CONCLUSION 359 



— six times over?'). Such is or was Mr. W. Wright 

 (called ' the boy,' in playful allusion to a smooth face 

 and plump cheeks, whose difference with Lord lioyston 

 over Alpenstock's City and Suburban is said to have led 

 to the suppression of ' list betting) ' ; such Mr. Valen- 

 tine (partner of Hardaway and Topping) ; such Mr. 

 Haughton (called ' Groseille,' or ' Gooseberry ' — groseille 

 a maquereau — from a story concerning effervescing 

 wines) ; such Mr. Marks (renowned as ' Antidote ' Marks, 

 by reason, it is stated, of some very sharp proceedings 

 in connection with an animal called Antidote) ; such 

 Mr. Burch (said to resemble a clergyman in appearance, 

 as was also said of the celebrated ' old John Day,' the 

 trainer), and many another. Of these ' book-makers ' 

 some have had careers almost as remarkable as those 

 of the first 'Leviathan,' Mr. W. Davis (originally a 

 workman at Cubitt's, where he is said to have begun by 

 winning a half-crown in 1840), or of Mr. John Jackson, 

 known as ' Jock o' Fairfield.' 



Take, for instance, Messrs. Valentine, Hardaway, and 

 Topping, of whom the senior partner was originally Mr. 

 George Hardaway (who died October 15, 1882). They 

 (as well as Mr. Wright, who was one of the ' firm ' of 

 Valentine and Wright) belonged to the regular ' betting- 

 house agencies,' which were driven out of England in 

 1853 (the law having been further extended to Scotland 

 in course of time). To ' Boulong ' they went, and so 

 flourished that, according to their biographer and 

 panegyrist, writing in 1882, Mr. George Hardaway ' was 

 associated with some very heavy pecuniary transactions,' 

 and had a ' lot of folks ' more or less ' dependent upon 

 his almost princely charity ; ' and of the firm itself it is 

 declared that ' few of our leading commercial houses in 

 the great city of London have more clients and corre- 



