40 SPORTING STORIES 



enthusiastic supporter of the Prize Ring — in fact, the noble 

 army of bruisers looked upon him as their treasurer. Yet 

 not all this expenditure would have ruined Mellish, if he 

 could only have kept aloof from " vile, insinuating hazard." 

 He once staked ;^40,ooo upon a single throw, and lost. 

 On another occasion he lost ^^97,000 at one sitting at 

 Brooks' Club, and was leaving the place when he met the 

 Duke of Sussex, to whom he exclaimed, " I've lost every- 

 thing ; I'm ruined." Thereupon the good-natured Duke, 

 clapping him on the back, said, " Come back ; your luck 

 will turn, perhaps." And it did turn with a vengeance, for he 

 won i^ioo,ooo clean off the reel from His Royal Highness. 

 But all he ever got in discharge of the debt was an annuity 

 of ;^4000 a year, badly paid. The last straw was the 

 St Leger of 1806, over which the betting was terrific. The 

 Sporting Magazine, two months before the race was run, 

 stated that there was little doubt that upwards of one 

 million guineas had already been laid. Lord Foley and 

 Mellish were amongst those who were most heavily hit by 

 the victory of Fyldener. The latter, indeed, was ruined 

 by the blow. In the following December his stud was sold, 

 whilst he himself left England and went out as aide-de- 

 camp to Sir Rowland Ferguson in Spain, where the 

 Peninsular War was then raging. 



But before he left he had the honour of entertaining the 

 Prince Regent in the mansion at Blythe which he had 

 been compelled to sell to Mr Walker, the great ironfounder 

 of Rotherham, who generously lent him the house in order 

 that he might play the host to his distinguished guest in a 

 manner worthy of his reputation. 



During the few days in which Mellish gave his farewell 

 reception to Royalty, he and the Prince used to sit up all 

 night engaged in the fascinating pursuit of hazard, and there 

 is still preserved in Doncaster, I believe, the little table at 

 which the master of Blythe rattled the dice for the last 

 time with the future sovereign of England. On being 

 appointed aide-de-camp to Sir Rowland Ferguson, Mellish 

 received the brevet rank of Colonel, and whilst he was 

 attached to that general's staff distinguished himself so 

 conspicuously by his gallantry that he was more than once 



