i/4 Life and Times of " The Druid." 



The last of the three articles alluded to 

 above appeared in the Daily Alezus, on Nov. 

 nth, 1868, headed : — 



"The Marquis of Hastings. 



" ' The Earl's year' has reached a sad 

 climax in the death of its leading actor. 

 1 The Spider and the Fly ' drama is ended. 

 That poor coroneted youth, who had 

 crowded into six years more Corinthian 

 excitement and weightier Turf cares than 

 many ' fast men ' know in a lifetime, has laid 

 down his weary load at last. He was only 

 twenty-six in July, and had already frittered 

 away two fine family estates. Betting is said 

 to be the touch-stone of an Englishman's 

 sincerity ; but with the Marquis a craving 

 for the odds had become a passion or even a 

 disease. He worshipped chance with all the 

 ardour of a fanatic. His wits were, he con- 

 sidered, worth to him in the betting ring at 

 least ,£20,000 a year, and he sometimes 

 threaded his way through the mazes of trials 

 and public running with all the sagacity of a 

 wizard. His public coups were often so bril- 

 liant that it was hardly to be wondered at 

 that he believed in his own destiny, and his 



