CHAPTER IV 



PARTNERS AND PLUNGERS 



The first betting partnership (or confederacy, as it was 

 then termed) on record was that of Charles James Fox 

 and Thomas, Lord Foley, which lasted from 1772 to 1793, 

 and was only terminated by the death of Lord Foley, 

 Everyone knows what a reckless plunger Fox was at every 

 kind of gambling. Gibbon tells of his playing at hazard 

 for twenty-two hours at a sitting and losing ;^5000 an 

 hour ; and in his first three years at the game he got 

 through iJ" 1 40,000. 



Indomitable punter that he was, he used to say that the 

 greatest pleasure in his life, after winning, was losing. He 

 commenced his partnership with Lord Foley well, for in 

 the first Spring Meeting of 1772 at Newmarket he won 

 ;^io,ooo by laying against the favourite, who was beaten 

 by a head. Three years later he eclipsed this coup by 

 winning ;^30,ooo over the three days' racing at the head- 

 quarters of the Turf. Even the cares of statesmanship 

 , could not keep him from constantly visiting Newmarket, 

 where his portly frame was ever to be seen on his hack, 

 tearing wildly past the judge's chair, close up with the 

 leading horses, whipping, spurring, and blowing as if he 

 would have infused his whole soul into the horse he was 

 backing ; just as Lord George Bentinck used to do, until 

 the late Mr Clarke defended a disputed decision by the 

 remark that he "ought by rights to have placed a tall 

 gentleman in a white mackintosh first." 



Charles James Fox owned some good horses in his time, 

 among them Pyrrhus, with whom he and his partner won 

 upwards of ;^ 12,000. But, though he brought off some 



35 



