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Sporting Portraits. No. III.

wonder our distinguished women do not adopt the more exhilirating plan of Mrs. Broadhead, and blend with the amufement of a ball, the captivating charms of a mafque. Here the fpirits are fet afloat,; the inventive taste, and the luxuriant fancy are called forth, and all the talents for repartee, whim, and gaité de ceur put into emulative contention. Beauty receives additional graces from the unbounded licence that a mafque gives to its drapery. The restraint of custom, by which the fine moulded arm is doomed

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quifite varieties of the fcene. A Nothing could furpass the exbirth-day gala, is only a series of modifications of embroidery-an inceffant change of foils and flowers, and plumes and taffels: but here every age, and every country combined their ftores, and the eye was every instant ftruck, and rivetted by new attraction.

SPORTING PORTRAITS.
No. III.

ISPLAYS a correct repre

to the concealment of a long D'fentation of one of the oldeft

fleeve-the shape to the tyranny, and the distortion of stays-the

and moft diftinguished characters hair to the twisting and difcolour-genuity, invention, and fuccefs. No upon the TURF, in judgment, ining of artifice, are all difpenfed with; and polished tafte reftoring to nature its due influence, aims only to heighten by fimplicity its charms. Caprice undoubtedly may disfigure the moft enchanting form to enjoy in the crowd for a time the delights of folitude, and to resume on breaking her difguife with more triumph her Tway; fuch was the mifchievous wile of fome of our shining beauties. They withdrew their rays from the brilliant hemifphere for more than half the night,play fully to enjoy the devotion paid to their aunts and mothers, and to laugh at the confufion of their admiréis on restoring their luftre to the fcene. The counterfeit, however, did not always profper. The beautiful Mifs K, though though fhe had throuded her fine form in mournful fable, could pot conceal the Grecian contour from enamoured gallantry-nor was it poffible for Mrs. R. by fhrinking from obfervation under the aufpices of a more glittering companion to elude the eye of inquifitive rapture.

Vol. IV. No. XIX.

ally treated by the prostituted man living has been more illiber-, prints of the day, nor has any man on earth deferved it LESS. to the comforts of life, he has Entitled by BIRTH and FORTUNE totally indifferent to the cynical enjoyed them without restraint, caprice of individuals on the one hand, or the jaundiced eye of envious malevolence on the other. But amidst the general purfuit of devoted, thofe pleafures have pleasure to which his life has been been the enjoyment of a man of rank, undebafed by the long lift of feindling degradations that fo lamentingly mark the juvenile fprigs of modern nobility. A tafte for, and patronage of the fine arts, a predilection for beautiful women, rich wines, a defire to excel on the turf, and exceed in calculation, have ever and ultimate gratification of his been the diftinguished traits GRACE's ambition. In all which he has been individually fuccefsful. When E of Mcontrived and executed fchemes. he of expedition, which were believed

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Sporting Portraits. No. III.

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ex.

JOCKEY CLUB, one of his lads that
was going to ride (in confequence
of his light weight) calling his
grace afide, afked him too foon
and too loud, "How he was to
ride to day perfectly convinced
?
he was overheard, his grace with
a well affected furprise exclaimed
"Why take the lead and keep it
to be fure! How the dl
would you ride ? Amidst his
grace's various fucceffes and in-
finite proofs of judgment, so far
fuperior to his long lift of cotem-
poraries, noue, perhaps, can be
produced more in point, than the
performances of his horfe DASH,
(by Florizei) in the year 1789.
On Tuesday, in the firft fpring
meeting, he received 500gs for-
feit from LORD DERBY's Sir Peter
Teazle, the fix mile courfe. 1000gs
h. f. On Monday, in the fecond
fpring meeting, he beat Mr.
Hallam's b. h. by Highflyer, 8ft.
71b. each B. C. 1000gs.
Thursday, in the fecond October
meeting, ofthe fame year, he beat
H. R. H. the P. of Wales's Don
Quixote, 8ft. lb. each, fix mile
courfe, googs and the Tuesday
fe'nnight, following, he beat
Lord Barrymore's Highlander, at
the fame weight three times round
the R. C. 6ongs winning exactly
within the fix months, 3000gs. In-
creafing years, and a repeated
fucceffion of every comfort the
world has to bestow, feems, at
length to have lulled all his
grace's keener appetites to the
apathy of age, and he glides to-

On

MATCHES have not been fo numerous as thofe of many other PORTRAITS, but they have generally been upon a more panded fcale and brilliant termi. nation. He and his rider DICK GOODISON, have generally gone hand in hand in their fuccefs, and there is every reafon to believe, that in a single inftance they have never deceived each other; for as his grace never clofed a match without the correfponding fauction of his confidant, fo it is naturally concluded in return, he has been equally faithful to the intereft of his employer. During fo long and uninterrupted an attachment to the turf, his grace has never difplayed the least want of philofophy upon the unexpected event of a race; or ever entered into an engagement but where there was a great probabi. lity of becoming the winner. In all emergencies his grace pre ferved an invariable equanimity, and his cool ferenity never for fook him, even in moments of the greatest furprife or difappoint-prefent temporary ftagnation of ment. A fingular proof of this occurred at Newmarket just as they were going to ftart for a fweepstakes, when his grace being engaged in a betting converfation with various members of the

wards the diffolution of life with every domeftic gratification of HOSPITALITY arouud him. The

the turf, from which fo many have lately (compulsively) withdrawn themselves, may have been one predominant reafon, why his grace's ftud are nearly all thrown

out

Sporting Portraits. No. IV.

out of training, and difpofed of to the best advantage. His grace's prefent purfuits feem chiefly confined to pedestrian parades, and alternate turns in the front of his own manfion; rational excurfions with his phaeton and ponies from the White Horfe Cellar to Hyde Park Corner, and fometimes the longer and more laborious journey of Park Lane, Hyde Park, and home. Thefe, with occafional elegant entertainments and accompanying concerts, (to the most brilliant of the fashionable dulcineas and operatic beauties) feem likely to fill the measure of his grace's fublunary enjoyments, and afford him daily opportunity in ruminating upon the various pleasures of this. life, or the uncertainty of the future; that whether sooner or later Summoned to pafs "the bourne," he may exultingly lay his head in mental eafe upon the pillow, and in paying the debt of NATURE gratefully exclaim "value re

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from a ftate of anxiety, to which by the restlefs ambition of its neighbours it had been fo long compulfively fubject. Rewarded dictinctly by his soVEREIGN, by the REPRESENTATIVES of the PEOPLE, and by the CITIZENS of LONDON, he retired from the field of WAR and the faction of POLITICS to enjoy the otium et dignitate of domeftic comfort, at the Lodge in Windfor Great Park, of which he had fome years before been appointed RANGER. Here he engaged in all the attracting pleafures of rurality; eftablished his ftud and breeding ftock, and with a portion of liberality equal (or fuperior) to the grateful munificence of a generous people, retained and employed in ufeful labour, a greater number of industrious poor, than, perhaps, ever was or may be feen again, within the park or foreft of Windfor. To his indefatigable exertions, the prefent generation ftands indebted for the va rious judicious croffes that have brought the breed of BLOOD HORSES into fuch a ftate of un

precedented perfection. The origin of all the most valuable ftallious now in the kingdom, centered in the happy combination of his own efforts to produce priority. CRAB.MARSK.-HE ROD and ECLIPSE, were amongst the most celebrated of his own breed,to which were annexed a very long lift of progeny, that by his death, and the "fafcinating flourish of the hammer," were 66 fcattered to all the winds of heaven." MARSK fell to the poffeffion of LORD ABINGDON, where he continued till his death. ECLIPSE, first to WILDMAN, then partes equalis with O'KELLY, and laftly to O⚫KELLY folus; as did the famous little horfe MILKSOP, the then first give and take horfe in the kingdom

E 2.

Sporting Portraits. No. V.

COURSE at ASCOT, feemed to be the most favourite and predominant object of purfuit, laying claim to every care and attention that could poffibly conftitute a fcene of the greatest and most unfullied brilliancy. This, the hand of Providence, (as the first object of his heart) fpared him long enough to fee complete, but juft in the moment of exultation, when loaded with the grateful careffes of an idolizing multitude, and when abfolutely arranging the business of a spring and autumn meeting at ASCOT, to vie, in fome degree, with the fport of NEWMARKET, and when the whole county was refounding with unprecedented plaudits; the all

36 kingdom, fo named by his R. H. in confequence of the dam's taking fright at him as foon as foaled, and never could be brought to any affociation, fo that he was literally brought up by hand. ECLIPSE alfo derived his appellation from the circumftance of being brought forth during the great eclipfe of total "darknefs vifible." His R. H. in his firft efforts for fuperiority, felt the mortification that every inexperienced liberal mind must be fubject to, when furrounded by the moft voracious Sharks of every defcription. The family of the GREEKS were then as now exceedingly numerous, and to its various branches his R. H. was for a confiderable time moft implicitly fub-wife and difpenfingPOWERto whofe fervient; but as foon as it was poffible for him to shake off the effects of the embarkation, and TIME had enabled him to produce ftock of his own breed, and that breed formed upon his well improved judgment, he took the lead, and in a very few years totally defeated every idea of competition, having, at the unexpected hour of his DEATH, not only the most pure, perfect and correct, but the most VALUABLE ftud of horfes in his poffeffion, of any fubject in the King's dominions. His lofs was confidered a ftill greater check

dictates we must piously submit, dropt the curtain of death upon fuch a LIFE, fuch an accumulation of GOOD WILL and CHARITABLE PRACTICE to all mankind that is but little imitated, never can be excelled: in the happy retrofpection of which, one admonition naturally prefents itself for the rumination of every contemplatist of human excellence,

S

"GO THOU and DO LIKEWISE."

No. V.

to the fporting world, as it hap. I much more confpicuous for pened juft at the moment when the TURF and its enjoyments had acquired the MERIDIAN of POPULARITY; it was the influenza of the day, to whofe infection fresh objects were eternally becoming fubject, and to which fashionable fafcination, the death of fo GREAT and fo GOOD a promoter gave an instantaneous obftruction. Amongst the numerous improvements inceffantly carrying on in and near his delightful refidence, the RACE

the greatness of defign than the brilliancy of execution; without defcending to a minutiæ of its component parts, it must fuffice to take a tranfcient furvey of the most diftinguishing traits that conftitute the aggregate, Born to a full enjoyment of hereditary fplendor, it can create no flight ray of admiration that he hall inately poffefs all the hauteur of ARISTOCRATIC DIGNITY, looking with the most perfect contempt upon the inferior and fubordinate parts

of

Sporting Portraits. No. V.

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when every avenue to the heart is generally open, totally unobftructed by the guardians that naturally refult from the effervefcence of experience. Thus inftinctively prudent, and inherently poffeffing the very Spirit of trade, it can be no matter of furprife that from the frigidity of his fenfations, and the fyftematic profit and lofs profpect of his ftudies, he should be much more than a match for every com

of the creation. The facred volume of incontrovertible truths has justly taught us to believe, "the fins of the fathers are vifited upon the children unto the third and fourth generation;" without fearching deeper into the repofitory of domestic recitals, it becomes applicable only to obferve, that one of the ancestors of the prefent portrait drew upon himself the contempt of the whole kingdom, by negotiating a peace that was univerfally confidered in-petitor within the dry and dreary glorious to the nation, and that walls of the university. Of a a ftill nearer in the line of affinity, faturnine caft, and naturally a (in the prime of life and univer- flave to his own imaginary greatfally admired for his virtues) un- nefs, he never became even a fortunately loft his life in the temporary devotee to MOMUS, Or chafe. Succeeding to the family engaged in any of those bold and honours even in the days of in- exhilerating fcenes, that give fpifancy, the annually accumulating rit to youth, and brilliancy to property amounted to an immen- understanding. With all these fity at his coming of age; and lights and fhades of circumfpecwhether he caught the infectious tion he embarked his life, and upfear of poverty and dread of a on the turf, divested of every idea workhoufe from a perufal of the of fear from the greatest arts or life of the late opulent and penurious ftudied exertions of the most MR. ELWES, or that he acquired powerful or defigning of his oppoleffons of prevention and prudence nents. From his earliest initiafrom the pecuniary annihilation tion his ftud were not only nuof his juvenile contemporaries, merous, but of the most judicious certain it is his profufion or extra- felection; he has never continued vagance has hitherto formed no lefs than thirty in conftant trainpart of his practice upon the TURF ing, and from the great numbers or at the GAMING TABLE, That he is annually breeding, from the immenfe mafs fo judiciously acfirst blood and ftock in the kingquired by the political induftry of dom, there can be no doubt but his ancestors, our hero feems as with the almoft unprecedented invariably determined to preferve prudence upon which his engageas though he had perfonally af- ments are formed, that he must fifted in the accumulation with easily preferve the fuperiority the true fpirit of two and a half he has fo carefully acquirper cent, premium, and adopted ed over every competitor for "fafe bind, fafe find," for his equeftrian celebrity. Amidst all motto, at the winding up his ac- the diflinguishing bleffings of pecount with the BULLS and BEARS cuniary immenfity, that great and on a grand fettling day in the alley. infinite fource of power to patroThis coftivity of conftitution is fonize arts, affift merit, or relieve interwoven in his frame, that it distress, none of the effence of displayed itself in what fhould be godlike STERNE's Jenfibility feems the frolicfome days of youth, to have been predominant in the.

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