BOUND TO RUIN. 47 



path in which he foreran ? Men such as he, and 

 Forbes Bentley, and Wyndham of Fellbrigg Hall, 

 and, in olden times, Mytton, who ' set his shirt-tails 

 on fire to drive away the hiccups,' did more injury to 

 racing than all the sharp practitioners of a degraded 

 type. The late Lord Maidstone is another instance. 

 A few years ago he fell into the hands of equally 

 obliging friends, who gave him, in exchange for bills 

 for £2,000, a box of cigars of the full value of a 

 five-pound note, quality and condition unguaranteed. 

 Gentlemen at least should be a little more discreet in 

 their public deportment for the good of those socially 

 beneath them, and as a tribute of respect to their 

 equals. Mr. Starkey, early doomed to the fate of an 

 unsuspecting and foolish man, lived only to feed the 

 rapacity of sharks ; and in the end had to leave his 

 wife and family to the tender mercies of a rude 

 and suspicious world, whilst, hopelessly ruined and 

 despondent, he himself sought refuge in a distant 

 land. 



I think I have said enough to show that men can 

 lose fortunes without keeping a large string of horses, 

 without betting, without the infatuation of gaming, 

 and, in other respects, without expensive habits — a 

 mystery only to be accounted for by the possession 

 of an innate stupidity akin to madness. And I 

 hope sufficient has been said to deter the rising 

 generation from following in footsteps that surely 

 lead to ruin. If money be wanted for reasonable 



