George IV. 109 



liked a racer, he was perfectly lavish as to price ; and 

 when, on his last return to the turf, William Chifney 

 bid up Pucelle, the grandam of Virago, and then a 

 brood mare, to 11 00 guineas, for Lord Darlington, at 

 Lord H. Fitzroy's sale, he received a hint that it was 

 no use going on, as Mr. Delme Radcliffe had instruc- 

 tions from the King to buy her at any price. Still he 

 was not always able to get all he wanted, even in 

 horseflesh ; and the late Sir Fowell Buxton, for 

 reasons which he never cared to conceal, sturdily re- 

 fused to listen to his lOOO guineas offer for his park 

 horse John Bull. He had one peculiarity as regards 

 money — that he was most liberal with it as long as he 

 did not see it. Cheques he would sign away to any 

 amount ; even 390/. for " Pea-Green Haynes's " dress- 

 ing-box seemed as nothing in that form ; but when he 

 had a fifty-pound note in his pocket, it was a bitter 

 pang to him to spend five pounds of it. If he had 

 paid the bills every Saturday night, those Carlton 

 House banquets, which saddened the heart of Romilly 

 as he sat and thought of the haggard and iron-bound 

 fact of distress from Land's End to John o'Groat's ; 

 and the building of the Royal Lodge, which so roused 

 the indignation of the press and the people, and 

 brought down Mr. Whitbread, M.P., in a severe Hamp- 

 den mood, all the way from the House of Commons 

 to Windsor for a survey — would have very soon been 

 discontinued, and peradventure the especial capabilities 

 of Virginia Water would have been still unknown. As 

 it was, these woodland haunts served to delight him 

 when, as a great Edinburgh reviewer wrote to his 

 friend, *' he was fat, nervous, and lazy," and " arthritic 

 tyranny " had acquired its deadly dominion over his 

 limbs and spirits. 



The year after he returned to the turf (1827), he 

 renewed his acquaintance with the Chifneys, by his 

 Dervise retainer to Sam, and followed it up by send- 

 ing special messages to both of them after Wednes- 



