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; 1 1 1 , ■ , • i , t I - f « I i ; • I • ■ • I* I* • • t I t t BETTORS OF OLD-TIME ENGLISH RACING. Eccentric and Extravagant Plungers Who Literally Threw Away Fortunes. In the course of a series of articles illustrative of English racing of long ago, a correspondent of London Spoilsman presents some entertaining ]teli pb fines, and of some worthies of a fighting and gambling age says: "It is iu the guise of a gossip that I here present myself to the reader, and 1 claim but the indulgence commonly allowed to such purveyors of amusement. In this anecdotal medley I give first place, as a matter of course, to the turf, the greatest and most universally popular of all our national sports. There was never a time in the history of horse racing when wagering was not inseparably connected with it. The first great "plunger of whom I have found any record was George Clifford. Earl of Cumberland, one of the most remarkable men even in the age so rich in men of mark as the spacious times of great Elisabeth. If you look up George Clifford In any dictionary Of biography you will find him des;gnated •eminent naval commander." though iu Vincents well-known work he is styled with less courtesy, but perhaps more truth, "private or privateer." Now sailors, as a rule, are not supposed to have much knowledge of horses, though Admiral Rous was a notable exception and George Clifford was another. ••His personal appearance was enough to have made him a noteworthy personage in any company. His singularly handsome face, his powerful, athletic, symmetrical form, his bold aud haughty car rage. ids magnificent dress, must have made him conspicuous o. n among the host of tall and proper nun that the Virgin Qneen loved to gather round her. He was. indeed, high in favor with ILr Majes ty. No less than seven expeditions did George Clifford fit out at his own expense against the Spin iards. and not even Franky brake himself fought the hated enemies of England with more spirit and persistence and romantic valor than the gay and reckless Earl of Cumberland, who staked his money on the success of those adventurous cruises with- a born gamblers recklessness. Fur a born gambler he was. and when he found that neither plundering Spanish galleons and caracks. nor the less noble tiastiine of dice and cards, afforded a full scope for his adventurous spirit or satisfied his «r.aing fVr excitement and speculation, he took to horse racing That entrancing sport seems to have given him the sensation h wanted: and on the turf *he-w»» afcle to gratify to the full his passion for gambling. One after another his estates passed from his hands to pay his racing debts and the expenses of the enormous stud he maintained. And there would have soon been nothing left for his heirs had not a fatal sickness struck him down and put an end to his •plunging. He died. I learn from a contemporary record, a very penitent man in the duchy house called the Savoy. October 30, 1C05, aged forty-seven vears and two months. "Of a very different and far more common type was the next "plunger of whom I find any records in the annals of the turf, to wit, Sir Richard Gargrave. Bart., of Nostal and Kinsley, in Yorkshire. He succeeded to th- title and estates" iu 100." . the year in which George Clifford. Karl of Cumberland, died, and the vastness of his possessions may be gathered from the fact that lie could iide from Wakefield to Doncaster without deviating an inch off his own land. But the fabled purse of Fortunatus would have failed to meet the demands of such a sp ndthrift as Richard Cargrave. When he became sheriff, his extravagance was so Wild that I almost think he must have Inherited a taint of madness. He would ride in almost regal splendour through the str etS of Wakefield, flinging gold light and left, as largesse to the common people and as a token of his gratitude "for so wise, jieace-ful and religious a king as England then enjoyed. In private life he seemed to have exhibited eceen-ricities similar to those of such sporting lunatics as Lord Barrvmore. Jack Mytton and Mad Windham Even now there linger in the neighborhood tradi.lons of his wild midnight orgies, his insane wagers, his appalling losses at cards and on the turf. H is described in contemporary records as a "notorious horse-courser. and a horse-courser was the term appHed to a sportsman who ran his horses for great sums of money, not without a suspicion of sharp practice. He bred and raced "innuiuer-, able running horses of great speed. on which he wagered with, recklessness, which Roon brought bin-to ruin. Manor after manor, farm after farm of the ancestral estate were sold till of all that Immense demesne which he had inherited, not a soli tarv acre was Kit him. "Roger Podsworth. the Yorkshire antiquary, writing in MM, says: He now lyveth in the Temple Alsatica for sanctuary, having consumed his whole estate, to the value of £3.500 per annum at least, and hath not a penny to maintain himself, but what the purchasers of some part of his lands In reversion aft r his mothers death allow him. In the hope he will survive his mother, who hath not consented to the sale. It must be remembered that in those days £300 a year was considered a good income for a country gentleman, and a squire with £500 a vear was regarded as wealthy. Sir Richard Gargraves rental of £3.500 would there-. fore have been equivalent to at least £20,000 a vear in the present day. "Finally, the gentleman- who owned one of the largest and richest estates in Yorkshire, and who had dazzled the townsfolk of Wakefield and Don-I caster by the magnificent pomp of his shrievalty, was reduced to be one of the attendants of a team of pack-horses. Sir Richard Gargrave seems to have followed this occupation for a couple of years. It was the last phase of his chequered career. He was not destined to fall any lower, for one night, after he had brought his pack-horses safely to Loudon, Be Vet gloriously drunk in an old Southwark hos telry. and the next morning was found lying in the stable with his head pillowed on a pack saddle sleeping his last sleep. So died the greatest horse cours r of the time. "These two plungers were at any rate honest sportsmen. They paid their debts and their wagers so long as they had a gold piece left. But there were others 1-ss honorable, defaulters of a type familiar to the liookiiiakcrs of today. There Is, for example, something very suspicious about the following passage from a letter dated March 20, MM. The Ear! of Southampton, they say. hath lost a great deal of monie latelie at the Horse Races at Newmarket: but true it is, he hath license to travel for three years, and is gone In all haste to France. A good many noblemen and gentlemen have since that time found it convenient : to go in all hast- to France after being hard hit on the turf. Bad have omitted to settle up before their departure. "The eighteenth century is rich in betting ana from royally downwards. Although the actual occupants of the throne showed little or no Interest in racing, the sport had the enthusiastic patronage of some lesser stars of royalty, among them the Prince of Wales and four royal dukes. Let us glance at one or two of these royal patrons of the turf and see what manner of sportsmen they were. "First and foremost, there was Frederick. Prince of Wales, eldest son of George II., and father of Ceorge III. Scarcely anyone had a good word for Poor Fred in his lifetime. His father and mother __ _ , Continued on sixth page. BETTORS OF OLD-TIME ENGLISH RACING. Continued from first page. detested him. The Intensity of their hatred for their eldest son was extraordinary in its bitterness. His mother. Queen Caroline, writing to John, Lord Harvey, thus expressed her opinion of their eldest born: My dear lord, I will give it to you under my own hand, if you are in any fear of my relapsing, that my dear first lwru is the greatest ass and the greatest liar and the greatest canaille and the greatest beast in the whole world, and 1 h ,art-ily wish he was out of it. I think you will lind it hard to match that as a mothers candid opinion of her »tirst-born son. •But the Kings loathing for the Prince of Wales was something even stronger and more horrible. What had "Poor Fred done to d serve such hatred and loathing from his parents? Well, he was not a nice young man, according to our modern notions. He drank and gambled and swore and kept a harem of mistresses, and was a big blackguard, no doubt, but then in these respects he was no worse than dozens of others about the court, whose peccadilloes never provoked such a storm of execration as fell on "Ioor Fred. Ho was no worse in his morals than his younger brother. William Augustus. Duke of Cumberland, yet the latter was to the last a persona grata at his fathers court. •"But whatever else Fr -derick. Prince of Wales, may have lw»en. he certainly was a keen sportsman, thoroughly English in his sporting tastes. He loved hunting, racing, yachting, angling, cricket and hawking. He was a very heavy bettor, not only on the turf, but on every amusement he indulged in. He was an enthusiastic cricketer though cricket was a vastly different game then from what it is now, and he and his brother, the Duke of Cumberland, who was equally keen on the game, were perpetually getting up matches against one another, each heavily backing his own eleven. But "Fred went further than this: He had a bet on every run or notch, as it was then termed, that was made. Indeed, his death was said to have been caused by a blow from a cricket ball whilst engaged in his favorite pastime. Now. to 1* a patron of cricket in those days was considered by respectable persons to he a mark of the most depraved taste. It wa« in far worse repute as a pastime than even the prize ring, which Broughtoii had just brought into fashion: and it was denounced in far stronger language than the Anti-Gambling League nowadays uses against the turf. For example. I find the following tirade against "the noble game in the Gentlemens Magi zine of 1743: "The diversion of cricket may be proper in holiday time and in the country, hut upon days when men ought to be busy, and in the neigh boi-hood of a great city, it is not only improper but mischievous in a high degree. It draws numbers of people from their employment to the ruin of their families. It brings crowds of apprentices and servants whose time is not their own. It propagates | spirit of idleness at a juncture when, with the utmost industry, our debts, taxes and decay of trail. will scarcely allow us to get bread. It is the most notorious breach of the laws, as it gives the most open encouragement to gaming, the advertisements most impudently reciting that great sums are laid. so that some people are so little ashamed of break-ins the laws which they had a hand -in making that they give public notice of it. "No one blamed either the Prime of Wales or the Duke of Cumberland much for their patronage of the turf, or even of the ring, but all the moralists of the age were down upon them for patronizing the dreadfully law, d moralizing game of cricket. There were even some who went so far as to re-gard Poor Freds death from the results of an aiiident at cricket as a judgment upon him for engaging in that disreputable and immoral pastime, on tlie race course the Prince of Wales was a plunger of the most pronounced tyjie and his losses at Ncwniark-t ami Ascot were Sometimes appalling in their magnitude."
