THIS IS FINDON VILLAGE created by Valerie Martin, contains scenes from her home village of Findon, West Sussex, U.K.

THE MARQUIS OF HASTINGS' LIAISON

Text copyright Valerie Martin 1999

I have traced that the Marquis of Hastings (Henry Weysford Charles Plantagenet Rawdon-Hastings, 4th Marquess of
Hastings born on 22nd July 1842) owned racehorses in training in Findon at the establishement of Henry Padwick the moneylender in the 1860s. This was at Downs House in Findon and run by the trainer, John Day. The young owner did not pretend to understand horses, nor did he show any respect for them. He was a habitual gambler, a compulsive drinker, and prone to playing practical jokes. When Day worked the racehorses too hard, the Marquis did not complain. He spent most of his time in London visiting disreputable haunts. He may look demure in the pictures surviving of him, but he once carried a bag full of live rats into a crowded club renowned for its gambling and prostitution. He opened the bag and released the rodents, which scuttled in all directions and made the Marquis rather unpopular to say the least. Many would not have been seen dead at the races in his unpleasant company.

More often than was good for him, the Marquis found himself attracted to the comfort of one of the most opulently appointed houses in Mayfair — that of 2 Hill Street, Berkeley Square, the home of the moneylender, Henry Padwick. It was a residence much patronised by the young members of the aristocracy when they were from time to time financially embarrassed. Padwick, the swindler, was without a doubt one of the worst scoundrels to frequent the racing scene of the 19th century. He cast a dark forbidding shadow across the path of the Marquis and was largely responsible for his downfall and death following the running of the 1867 Derby.