SOME LATTER-DAY PENCILLERS 29 



Dutchman, and he had three terrible years running in 

 1849, 1850, 1851. A quarter of a million would hardly 

 have covered his losses on the Epsom victories of Voltigeur, 

 Daniel O'Rourke, and Teddington. Perhaps the worst 

 blow of the three was Sir Joseph Hawley's win ; it was, as 

 " Argus " said at the time, " a blow between wind and 

 water." But he " took no more notice of it than he was 

 wont to do of his washing bill, although his losses were 

 estimated at ;^ioo,ooo, paying them with as much indiffer- 

 ence as the London and Westminster Bank would have 

 done." Amongst others to whom he had lost large sums 

 was Mr Charles Greville, whose posthumous Memoirs 

 are the most famous chronique scandaleuse of our time ; and 

 Mr Greville was somewhat surprised, and perhaps a good 

 deal relieved, to receive on the morning of the Oaks a 

 cheque for ;^i 5,000 from Mr Davis. This judicious 

 promptitude at once put an end to all suspense on the part 

 of those who were looking forward with some nervousness 

 to settling-day, and it stamped Davis as "a very mine 

 of Peru." 



But he had his revenge in the autumn, when Mrs Taft 

 and Truth amply recouped him for his summer losses ; 

 the two of them probably bringing him in ;^50,ooo. He 

 was supposed to have entered on his 1852 campaign with 

 ;{^i 30,000 at the London and Westminster Bank, the heads 

 of which establishment, it is said, " would rise to ac- 

 commodate him at any hour of the night." That statement, 

 however, must be taken with a grain of salt. At this point 

 of his career Davis fairly deserved his title of " Leviathan," 

 for he conducted his business on a scale never known 

 before. He resembled, in fact. Colonel O'Kelly in his 

 zenith, who, when he was asked, after taking a heavy bet, 

 where his estates lay, responded, " By the powers, I hev 

 the map o' them about me," and produced a perfect roll 

 of bank-notes ; or the old miser near Doncaster, who went 

 to a great land sale in his filthy rags with a hay-bag round 

 his waist, and astonished the auctioneer, who wondered 

 where the deposit was to come from, by holding up a 

 i^ 1 00,000 bank-note (one of the few ever made), and 

 saying, " Here's the cock — I've got the old hen at home ! " 



