â more money, aye far more money, 72 than I have cleared by my honest industry for a month â or even your horse Eclipse, with all his superior agility, has run away with in a whole season.
This last reflexion racks my soul. Write to me, however, and tell me of some capital stroke you have made to comfort me, for I
am at present,
Your most disconsolate
Charlotte Hayes
Marlborough Street
September 4th
A print appeared, with the title A Late Unfortunate Adventure at York . It shows a crowded bedroom, with a portrait of Eclipse above the bed; in the centre of the room Dennis is making emollient gestures, holding out notes marked â500â and â1000â, while a man threatens him with a pikestaff. An angry woman is holding a swooning Miss Swinburne, beneath a sign reading âThe Chaste Susannaâ. From behind a door peeks another woman, barebreasted.
Nearly twenty years later, following Dennisâs death, The World reminded its readers of the adventure, alleging that Dennis had commented bitterly â and untruly â that he would never donate another penny to charity. It was also said that he gave an undertaking never again to set foot in Yorkshire. The 1770 York meeting (if he was there) was the last he attended in the county â where, the Genuine Memoirs related, âhe was considered, by the ladies, as satyr; and by the gentlemen, who very laudably entertained a proper sense of female protection, a ruffianâ. This was Dennisâs reputation outside Yorkshire too, and the âunfortunate adventureâ helped to cement it. Miss Swinburne recovered her good name; Dennis, among the people who mattered, did not.
One of the people who was to matter most was the owner of a rival to Eclipse for the York Great Subscription (worth £319 10s to the winner). Sir Charles Bunbury, single again after his wife Lady Sarah (née Lennox) had eloped the previous year, was the steward of the Jockey Club, and was on his way to establishing himself as âThe First Dictator of the Turfâ. His entry for the York race was called Bellario. A second rival, Tortoise, came from the stables of Peregrine Wentworth, winner in 1769 with Bucephalus (defeated by Eclipse at Newmarket in April). Bellario and Tortoise had fine reputations, which counted for little in the betting: Eclipseâs starting price was 1-20.
The race was run over four miles on the Knavesmire, a stretch of common land that was once the site for executions. York racing week was the northâs answer to the big meetings at Newmarket, and the huge crowd at the course included the Duke of Cumberland (nephew of the Cumberland who bred Eclipse), the Duke of Devonshire, the Dukes and Duchesses of Kingston and Northumberland, and the Earl and Countess of Carlisle. One would like to know whether the disgraced Dennis OâKelly had the brass neck to join them. It would have been a shame to miss this race.
Eclipse set off in his customary position at the front of the field, and this time never allowed his rivals, as he had done briefly at Epsom and Newmarket, to get close to him. Head low, raking stride relentless, he powered further and further clear. At the betting post, a layer shouted that he would take 100-1 on Eclipse. 73 After two of the four miles, Eclipse was already a distance (240 yards) ahead of the others, and he maintained the gap, coming to the line âwith uncommon easeâ. In one account, Dennis gave a group of men the scary task of standing to form a wall beyond the finishing line to encourage Eclipse to pull up.
Sir Charles Bunbury took the defeat with the lack of grace of a modern football manager. Jibbing at the loss to the upstart OâKelly, he never accepted that Eclipse was his horse Bellarioâs superior. And he seems never to have been willing to accept Dennis as his equal â an attitude that was to blight Dennisâs Turf ambitions.
Eclipseâs 1770 schedule included four
This last reflexion racks my soul. Write to me, however, and tell me of some capital stroke you have made to comfort me, for I
am at present,
Your most disconsolate
Charlotte Hayes
Marlborough Street
September 4th
A print appeared, with the title A Late Unfortunate Adventure at York . It shows a crowded bedroom, with a portrait of Eclipse above the bed; in the centre of the room Dennis is making emollient gestures, holding out notes marked â500â and â1000â, while a man threatens him with a pikestaff. An angry woman is holding a swooning Miss Swinburne, beneath a sign reading âThe Chaste Susannaâ. From behind a door peeks another woman, barebreasted.
Nearly twenty years later, following Dennisâs death, The World reminded its readers of the adventure, alleging that Dennis had commented bitterly â and untruly â that he would never donate another penny to charity. It was also said that he gave an undertaking never again to set foot in Yorkshire. The 1770 York meeting (if he was there) was the last he attended in the county â where, the Genuine Memoirs related, âhe was considered, by the ladies, as satyr; and by the gentlemen, who very laudably entertained a proper sense of female protection, a ruffianâ. This was Dennisâs reputation outside Yorkshire too, and the âunfortunate adventureâ helped to cement it. Miss Swinburne recovered her good name; Dennis, among the people who mattered, did not.
One of the people who was to matter most was the owner of a rival to Eclipse for the York Great Subscription (worth £319 10s to the winner). Sir Charles Bunbury, single again after his wife Lady Sarah (née Lennox) had eloped the previous year, was the steward of the Jockey Club, and was on his way to establishing himself as âThe First Dictator of the Turfâ. His entry for the York race was called Bellario. A second rival, Tortoise, came from the stables of Peregrine Wentworth, winner in 1769 with Bucephalus (defeated by Eclipse at Newmarket in April). Bellario and Tortoise had fine reputations, which counted for little in the betting: Eclipseâs starting price was 1-20.
The race was run over four miles on the Knavesmire, a stretch of common land that was once the site for executions. York racing week was the northâs answer to the big meetings at Newmarket, and the huge crowd at the course included the Duke of Cumberland (nephew of the Cumberland who bred Eclipse), the Duke of Devonshire, the Dukes and Duchesses of Kingston and Northumberland, and the Earl and Countess of Carlisle. One would like to know whether the disgraced Dennis OâKelly had the brass neck to join them. It would have been a shame to miss this race.
Eclipse set off in his customary position at the front of the field, and this time never allowed his rivals, as he had done briefly at Epsom and Newmarket, to get close to him. Head low, raking stride relentless, he powered further and further clear. At the betting post, a layer shouted that he would take 100-1 on Eclipse. 73 After two of the four miles, Eclipse was already a distance (240 yards) ahead of the others, and he maintained the gap, coming to the line âwith uncommon easeâ. In one account, Dennis gave a group of men the scary task of standing to form a wall beyond the finishing line to encourage Eclipse to pull up.
Sir Charles Bunbury took the defeat with the lack of grace of a modern football manager. Jibbing at the loss to the upstart OâKelly, he never accepted that Eclipse was his horse Bellarioâs superior. And he seems never to have been willing to accept Dennis as his equal â an attitude that was to blight Dennisâs Turf ambitions.
Eclipseâs 1770 schedule included four
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