335 



In these old times large sums were also betted upon cock-fighting. Lord 

 Derby's " black-reds " would be matched against the " Cheshire piles " 

 for enormous amounts. Five-and-twenty guineas a battle, with five 

 hundred on the main, was a stake often fought for in the Chester and 

 Preston Pits. On one occasion, as is recorded in the previous chapter, 

 the stakes were a thousand a battle and five thousand the main. As in 

 racing, betting on cocks was restricted to the upper classes. 



Gambling over cards also took place to a fearful extent, as the early 

 minutes of " Brooks's " and " White's " record. It is related of the cele- 

 brated Henry Mellish that after having lost £100,000 one night at 

 hazard he was going home, but met one of the Royal Dukes who 

 persuaded him to return and see if luck would change. It did 

 change, whereby he won back what he had lost, and, in addition, a 

 great deal more than £100,000 from H.K.H. This debt was squared 

 by settling on Colonel Mellish for life ^£4,000 a year. Fancy what the 

 play must have been to have enabled a man in one night to lose 

 ^100,000 and then win over ^200,000 ! 



In due time the professional bookmaker made his appearance on 

 the racecourse, but I can't fix the date of his advent. I should say 

 Crockford was one of the first ; at all events, a hundred years ago 

 he was a bookmaker, and of the greatest magnitude. He afterwards 

 started a gambling club in St. James' Street, where the Devonshire 

 Club now stands. In this place numbers of the finest fellows in 

 England were ruined, while the owner amassed a tremendous fortune. 

 This fiend, hideous in body as in mind, was dubbed *' the father of hell 

 and hazard," a title which, by infernal right, was truly his own. 



Then came John Gully ; then William Davies, called the " Levia- 

 than," from the magnitude of his transactions, and numbers of others. 

 With them the upper classes gambled to a fabulous extent, and 

 wagered sums now happily unknown. 



From an authority of the day I learn that in 1810 John Gully, who 

 essayed to be champion of England, began as a bookmaker. This he 

 did with a capital of three or four hundred pounds, which he won in 

 his last battle with Gregson. Gully, in a very short time, made a lot of 

 money upon bookmaking and became the owner of several racehorses. 

 For nearly forty years he was among the most prominent men on the 

 Turf, and was one of the heaviest bettors. This quondam pugilist 

 died with a racing reputation which any patrician might be proud of. 



As far back as 1823 the Derby was a race upon which tremendous 

 sums of money were laid out, and from then up to even now it has 

 remained the heaviest betting race in the world. 



We have chronicled among the heaviest bettors of their day such 

 men as the Duke of Queensberry, Colonel Mellish, Lord Foley, Sir 

 Charles Bunbury, Lord George Bentinck, Sir Joseph Hawley, Mr. 

 James Merry, Mr. R. C. Naylor, the Marquis of Hastings, and Mr. 

 Henry Chaplin. For these men, and scores of others, to lose or win on 

 a single race £10,000 to £50,000 was by no means uncommon. 



