Linnane, Fergus, Madams, Bawds and Brothel-Keepers of London (Sutton, 2005)
‘OMIAH:An Ode Addressed to Charlotte Hayes’, The New Foundling Hospital for Wit (London, 1784)
Rubenhold, Hallie, The Covent Garden Ladies (Sutton, 2005)
_______ Harris’s List of Covent Garden Ladies (Sutton, 2005)
Thompson, Edward, The Courtesan (J. Harrison, 1770)
_______ The Meretriciad (C. Moran, 1761, 1770)
Epsom
Andrews, James, Reminiscences of Epsom (L.W. Andrews & Son, 1904)
Bawtree, Harold, A Few Notes on Banstead Downs with Some Remarks on Epsom Races (William Pile, 1928)
Dorling, E. E., Epsom and the Dorlings (Stanley Paul, 1939)
Dorling, W., Some Particulars Relating to the History of Epsom (Epsom, 1825) Epsom Common (Epsom Common Association, 1981)
Harte, Jeremy, Epsom: A History and Celebration (Francis Frith Collection, 2005)
Home, Gordon, Epsom: Its History and Surroundings (Homeland Association, 1901)
Hunn, David, Epsom Racecourse (Davis-Poynter, 1973)
Pownall, H., Some Particulars Relating to the History of Epsom (Epsom, 1825) Salter, Brian J., Epsom Town Downs and Common (Living History, 1976) White, Reginald, Ancient Epsom (William Pile, 1928)
Racing Records
Cheny, John, An Historical List of All Horse Matches Run, and of All Plates and Prizes Run for in England (London, various years)
Duke of Ancaster’s Stud Book (1772–78)
The General Stud Book (Weatherbys, 2006)
Heber, Reginald, An Historical List of Horse Matches Run; and of Plates and Prizes Run for in Great Britain and Ireland (London, various years)
Newmarket Match Book (1754)
Pick, William, An Authentic Historical Racing Calendar (York, 1785)
Pond, John, Sporting Kalendar (London, various years)
The Racing Calendar (Weatherbys, 1773–)
Towers, William Sydney, An Introduction to a General Stud Book (Weatherbys, 1791)
Tuting, William and Thomas Fawconer, The Sporting Calendar: Containing an Account of the Plates, Matches, and Sweepstakes Run for in Great Britain (London, various years)
Walker, B., An Historical List of Horse-Matches, Plates and Prizes, Run for in Great Britain and Ireland (London, 1769, 1770)
Newspapers and Journals
Annual Register (various years)
The British Racehorse (George Rathbone, ‘Reconstruction of Eclipse’, November 1963)
The Burlington Magazine (David Mannings, ‘Reynolds and the Shaftos: Three Letters and a Deposition’, November 1997)
The Field (December 1920; June 1937)
Gentleman’s Magazine (November 1765; 1787 supplement; October 1802)
Guardian (Sean Magee, ‘The Day When Arkle Became the Greatest’, November 2005)
Independent on Sunday (Fiammetta Rocco, ‘Ma’am Darling: The Princess Driven by Loyalty and Duty’, February 1998)
Lloyd’s Evening Post (1764, 1765)
London Chronicle (1764, 1765)
London Evening Post (1764, 1765)
The London Magazine (1772)
Monthly Review (1788)
Morning Post (1775)
The Newgate Calendar (exclassics.com)
Observer (Clare Balding, ‘The Sheikh Is Unstirred’, October 2005) Pacemaker (Tony Morris, ‘Sorting Fact from Fiction’, October 2007) Racing Post Bloodstock Review 2007 St James’s Chronicle (1765)
The Sporting Magazine (various issues)
The Tatler (July 1927)
The Thoroughbred Record (September 1920; June 1924)
The Times (digital archive)
Town & Country (1769, 1770)
The Veterinary Record (March 1991)
Whitehall Evening Post (1788, 1789)
World Fashionable Advertiser (1788)
York Courant (1770)
Websites
Ascot.co.uk
Australian Government Culture and Recreation website/ Melbourne Cup
Bloodlines.net
British Horseracing Authority website
Coolmore.com
The Cox Library website
Epsom Salt Council website
Horsesonly.com (Mariana Haun, ‘The X Factor’)
HotBoxingNews.com
The Jockey Club website
Measuring Worth website
National Museum of Australia website
North London Collegiate School website
Pedigreequery.com
Royal Veterinary College website
SportingChronicle.com
TBHeritage.com
Traceyclann.com
Victorian-cinema.net
Weatherbys website
Archives
Canons records, North London Collegiate School
Clay Hill papers, Surrey History Centre
Fitzwilliam/Langdale papers, Public Record Office, Northern Ireland
Fleet prison debtors’ schedules, London Metropolitan Archives Fleet records, National Archives
Noble Collection, Guildhall Library
Papers of Colonel Andrew Dennis O’Kelly, Brynmor Jones Library, University of Hull
Plumer papers, London Metropolitan Archives
St Lawrence, Little Stanmore, burial records, London Metropolitan Archives Wills of Dennis O’Kelly, Andrew Dennis O’Kelly and Charles Andrew O’Kelly, National Archives
Acknowledgements
Timothy Cox has been extraordinarily hospitable and helpful, allowing me to work at the Cox Library and hunting down information that I would never have discovered on my own. He has also offered many useful suggestions about the text. Any surviving errors are mine.
I got the idea to write this book when I read the passage on Eclipse and Dennis O’Kelly in Glenye Cain’s excellent The Home Run Horse. She has been very generous in her encouragement. Sean Magee, another writer with far better qualifications than mine for this venture, has given me kind assistance. Michael Church, author of the splendid Eclipse: The Horse, The Race, The Awards, also selflessly welcomed me as I stepped on to his territory. I am grateful, too, for the help of the racing writers Tony Morris and Rachel Pagones, and of Martin Stevens of Pacemaker.
Caroline Baldock and Gerald Goodman of the Epsom Equestrian Conservation Group took me on a tour of Dennis O’Kelly’s and Eclipse’s haunts in Epsom. The trainer Philip Mitchell showed me the old stable block at Downs House, home to the O’Kelly racers. I thank John and Rebecca Morton of Thirty Acre Stables, and Jeremy Harte of Bourne Hall Museum.
David Oldrey answered my questions about the O’Kellys, the Jockey Club and the Review of the Turf. Dr Renate Weller made time to see me to discuss the Royal Veterinary College’s work on Eclipse’s skeleton; and I thank her colleagues Professor Matthew Binns and Elspeth Keith. Dr Mim Bower, of the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research at the University of Cambridge, patiently explained her genetic research.
I thank Judy Burg and Helen Roberts at the archives in the BrynmorJones Library, University of Hull; Karen Morgan and the library staff at the North London Collegiate School for Girls; Anne Craig of the Public Record Office, Northern Ireland; Jane Lewis of the Surrey History Centre; Graham Snelling and Alun Grundy of the National Horseracing Museum; Diane Bellis of Waddesdon Manor; Kathryn Jones of The Royal Collection Trust; Wes Proudlock of the Australian Institute of Genealogical Studies; Dermot Mulligan of Carlow County Museum; and the staff at the British Library, National Archives at Kew, London Metropolitan Archives, Westminster City Archives, and Guildhall Library.
I also wish to thank Robin Blake, author of George Stubbs and the Wide Creation; Peter Mackenzie and Lindsay Ankers of Mainstream Publishing; John Sharp of Weatherbys; Adam Caplin; and Marion Regan.
My editor, Selina Walker, has been a constant guide, never allow
ing my knowledge of her faith in the book to settle into the complacent assumption that I could not make it better. I thank Sheila Lee for her expert and resourceful work on the illustrations; and everyone at my friendly, collegiate publisher, Transworld. And I thank my agent, Ros Edwards, a friend and support as always.
Picture Acknowledgements
Endpapers (hardback edition only): Gentlemen on Horseback Watching a Race by Thomas Rowlandson, ink and watercolour: courtesy of Sotheby’s Picture Library.
Images reproduced in the text:
9 The Covent Garden Morning Frolic by L. P. Boitard, 1747: Guildhall Library and Art Gallery © Corporation of London.
16 ‘The Whore’s Last Shift’, anonymous engraving from The Covent Garden Magazine, 1770.
29 Portrait of Charles Fox by J. Bretherton, 1782.
32 View of the PUBLIC OFFICE, Bow Street, with Sir John Fielding presiding and a Prisoner under examination, engraving after Dodd, c. 1779.
47 William Augustus, Duke of Cumberland by George Townshend, 1751–58: National Portrait Gallery, London.
77 The Coffee-house Politicians, engraving, 1772: Guildhall Library and Art Gallery © Corporation of London.
88 Plan and Survey of Epsom Race Course by William Kemp, 1823: by permission of the British Library, Maps 5375 (1).
106 A Late Unfortunate Adventure at York, engraving, 1770: © The Trustees of the British Museum, Department of Prints and Drawings.
121 One of the Tribe of Levi, Going to Brakefast with a Young Christian, engraving, 1770: courtesy of The Lewis Walpole Library, Yale University.
151 The Oaks, Surrey, anonymous engraving.
156 ‘The Derby – At Lunch’ from London: a Pilgrimage by Gustave Doré, 1882.
174 A view, in Indian ink, of Cannons, in the parish of Little Stanmore, or Whitchurch, near Edgeware, the seat of D. O’Kelly, Esq., c. 1790–1810: by permission of the British Library, Maps K Top 30.25.c.
202 George IV at Ascot, drawing by John Doyle: © The Trustees of the British Museum, Department of Prints and Drawings.
207 How to Escape Winning satire by Thomas Rowlandson¸1791: © The Trustees of the British Museum, Department of Prints and Drawings.
217 Dorsal view of the muscle structure of a progressively dissected horse, study No 7 from ‘The Anatomy of the Horse’, 1766 by George Stubbs: Royal Academy of Arts, London/The Bridgeman Art Library.
237 Anonymous portrait of Lord George William Cavendish Bentinck, pen and ink, nineteenth century: private collection/The Bridgeman Art Library.
268 Elements of the veterinary art, containing An essay on the proportions of the celebrated Eclipse …, by Charles Vial de Sainbel, 1791:The Huntington Library, San Marino, California, RB 614264.
Colour sections
First Section
Eclipse, by George Stubbs, 1770: private collection/The Bridgeman Art Library.
View of the Piazza, Covent Garden, coloured engraving after Thomas Sandby, 1770: Guildhall Library Print Room © Corporation of London; Vauxhall Gardens, aquatint after Thomas Rowlandson and A. C. Pugin, 1808: © Mary Evans Picture Library/Alamy; The King’s Place, watercolour by Thomas Rowlandson: © Atkinson Art Gallery, Southport, Lancs./The Bridgeman Art Library; A St James’s Beauty, coloured engraving, 1784: © The Trustees of the British Museum, Department of Prints and Drawings.
Marske aged 20, oil painting by George Stubbs, 1770: courtesy of Sotheby’s Picture Library; Eclipse with John Oakley Up, oil painting by John NostSartorius, 1771: © Christie’s Images Ltd; A Riding Party in a Country Landscape, oil painting by Judith Lewis, c. 1755; detail of Eclipse with Mr Wildman and his Sons, after an oil painting by George Stubbs, c. 1770: © Mary Evans Picture Library/Alamy; The Eclipse Macarony, coloured etching by R. St G. Mansergh, 1773: National Portrait Gallery, London.
A Hint for an Escape at the next Spring Meeting, engraved satire after Isaac Cruikshank, 1792: © The Trustees of the British Museum, Department of Prints and Drawings; The Jockey Club or Newmarket Meeting, coloured engraving after Thomas Rowlandson, 1811: Jockey Club Estates; Sir Charles Bunbury with Cox, his trainer, and a Stable-Lad, painting by Benjamin Marshall, ?1801, a study for Surprise and Eleanor: © Tate, London, 2008.
Eclipse, coloured illustration from Cassell’s Book of the Horse, 1890, after a painting by George Garrard: © Mary Evans Picture Library/ Alamy.
Second Section
Detail of Hambletonian, oil painting by George Stubbs, c. 1800: Mount Stewart, The Londonderry Collection (The National Trust) © The National Trust.
A Bookmaker and his client outside the Ram Inn, Newmarket, pen and watercolour, by Thomas Rowlandson: Paul Mellon Collection/The Bridgeman Art Library; Dennis O’Kelly with Others, at Newmarket, ink and watercolour, by Thomas Rowlandson: The Halifax Collection; The Race Meeting, ink and watercolour, by Thomas Rowlandson: courtesy of Sotheby’s Picture Library; The Betting Post, watercolour by Thomas Rowlandson, 1789: copyright © V&A Images.
Tattersall’s Horse Repository, coloured aquatint after A. C. Pugin and Thomas Rowlandson, from Ackerman’s Microcosm of London, 1808: © Historical Picture Archive/Corbis; The Subscription Club Room, pen and watercolour by Thomas Rowlandson: private collection/© Agnew’s, London, UK/The Bridgeman Art Library; Richard Tattersall with Highflyer in the background oil painting by Thomas Beach: private collection/The Bridgeman Art Library.
The Derby Jig, ink and watercolour, by George Moutard Woodward, 1797:courtesy of Sotheby’s Picture Library; Fête Champêtre at The Oaks, near Epsom: the Supper Room, oil painting by Antonio Zucchi (1726–95): © The Right Hon. Earl of Derby/The Bridgeman Art Library; Derby Sweepstake, oil painting by J. Francis Sartorius, 1791–2: Epsom Library, Surrey/The Bridgeman Art Library; Derby Day, poster by Vera Willoughby, 1932: © Transport for London; Derby Day, 1928, coloured photo by Francis Frith: Francis Frith Collection/akg-images.
Eclipse relics: Jockey Club Estates; Eclipse skeleton: Royal Veterinary College.
Plates
George Stubbs’s best-known painting of Eclipse shows him at Newmarket, before the toughest challenge of his career.
Scenes from the louche London over which Charlotte Hayes reigned: (main picture) Covent Garden, her spiritual home; (left) the Vauxhall pleasure gardens, where Londoners gathered to see and be seen; (centre) a gentleman is the centre of attention for some King‘s Place #8216;nuns#8217;; (right) a St James#8216;s beauty looks out towards the palace, expecting her royal lover.
Above: Eclipse’s long-undervalued sire Marske, painted by Stubbs.
Below: J. N. Sartorius’s Eclipse with Oakley Up, showing the horse’s low head carriage while galloping.
Country gentlemen, of the sort that Wildman and O’Kelly were not. Stubbs’s touching portrait of Wildman
Stubbs’s touching portrait of Wildman and his sons.
The Eclipse Macarony, a surely ironic title (a macarony was a dandy) for the gross, bearish Dennis O’Kelly.
Above: caricaturists did not hold back from depicting the Prince of Wales and his jockey,
Chifney, as guilty of pulling their horse, Escape.
Below: Thomas Rowlandson’s portrait of members of the Jockey Club, an assembly from which Dennis O’Kelly was excluded.
Dennis O’Kelly’s nemesis, Sir Charles Bunbury (a.k.a. the first Dictator of the Turf) with (blue-coated) his trainer, Cox.
Eclipse by George Garrard, who painted the horse at stud, with a stallion’s high crest.
Detail from Stubbs’s great painting of Hambletonian (Eclipse’s grandson) after the horse’s gruelling match with Diamond.
Right: a bookmaker and his client at Newmarket, at a time when bets were struck on an ad hoc basis.
Below: in the foreground, two men make a deal over a horse; with his back to us, Dennis O’Kelly instructs (to win or lose?)
a jockey.
A race meeting at a country course, where the spectators find their own vantage points, by Rowlandson.
Rowlandson’s The Betting Post, with the Prince of Wales (pointing) on the left, and Dennis O’Kelly (blue coat and crutches) on the right.
Left: the bloodstock auctioneer Tattersalls was at this time based near Hyde Park Corner in London.
Main picture: Rowlandson’s caricature shows Dennis O’Kelly (in the portrait on the right wall)
as the presiding genius over the scene of intrigue and despair at the subscription club room at Tattersalls, where bets were struck.
Below: Richard Tattersall, standing before a portrait of his beloved Highfl yer.
Left: The Derby Jig, danced by Lord Derby and his mistress, the actress Elizabeth Farren, in the year when they married.
Below: a fête champêtre at Derby’s house The Oaks; on one such occasion, the Derby Stakes was conceived.
J. N. Sartorius’s painting of the Derby in the 1790s, before it became the race that stopped the nation.
Below: a scene that might be from Evelyn Waugh or P. G. Wodehouse, at Tattenham Corner in the 1920s.
Left: Vera Willoughby’s 1932 poster advertises the bus service of one’s dreams.
Eclipse relics (clockwise from top): the Jockey Club whip, reputedly containing hair from Eclipse’s tail; a framed portion of his chestnut hide; three details of his hoof; and his skeleton. The skeleton is at the Royal Veterinary College, and the other bits of his anatomy are at the Jockey Club Rooms.
Index
Eclipse Page 32