WINNERS AND LOSERS

Text copyright Valerie Martin 1999

Here is another little local racing story from the era of Hermit.   Did you know that Worthing conducted horse racing on the sandy beach (yes, the shore was classed as sandy in those days).  In 1873, a young lad named George William Gates was knocked down and killed by a horse during the Worthing Races on the sands.    Despite this, the meeting was hailed a success.    It is said that Worthing Pier improvised as a superb grandstand in those days as the steeds passed twice underneath the pier in each race.   What a sight it must have been to behold.

Back to the Hermit saga.  What happened to the many characters connected with that racehorse in 1867? Some were destined to be losers, and some were winners.

I can reveal that Henry Chaplin was so pleased when his horse, Hermit, won the 1867 Derby, that he handed a present of money to his former Findon trainer, William Goater. This was in appreciation of the part he had played in preparing the horse for his big race. William Goater used the gift to build a row of cottages in the Findon main street. They were constructed on a parcel of land that had been occupied, it is said, "by three black huts". The newly built terrace, running at a right-angle to the High Street, became known as Hermit Terrace. Findon gained some esteem and Hermit put the Downs Stables on the map in the racing world.

In July 2004, I discovered a small portion of Findon that I didn't know existed and I guessed Tony Hammond could solve a mystery for me as he lived there in the past.

For the very first time I went to Hermit Terrace and walked to the very end.

I found a creepy ancient brick building on the right on two floors with a flight of steps leading up to the First Floor. There were a couple of doors on the exterior of the Ground Floor ..... damn!  All locked.  All very mysterious.

Wearing my Sherlock Holmes hat I proceeded further.  Beyond this building and just on my left was another brick block with a row doors facing away from Hermit Terrace. Alas all locked again. An ancient toilet block for the inhabitants of Hermit Terrace?

(a) What was the purpose of the two storey building ....... a wash room?   

(b) Is the second building a toilet block for Hermit Terrace.

I was also told that a builder (?) had acquired the area where the deserted brick buildings stand about 12 years ago but hasn't done anything with them.

I guess by now you are laughing as you imagine me creeping about under the ivy at the back of Hermit Terrace.

 

Chaplin's trainer, Old Bloss, who slept in Hermit's stable with him before the Derby of 1867, was handed a cheque for £5,000 by Henry Chaplin. The devotion and work the old man had put in prior to the race had obviously not gone unnoticed and his affection was rewarded.

In the summer of 2003, I was pleased to receive an e-mail from Old Bloss's Great Great Grandson —

Henry Chaplin's rival, the Marquis of Hastings (the son of George Augustus Francis Rawdon-Hastings, 2nd Marquess of Hastings and Barbara Grey), not surprisingly, came to a sticky end. Drinking wrecked his health and he spent the declining months of his life trying to recoup his losses with a series of desperate plunges that led him further into debt.   He gained the title of 9th Earl of Loudoun and the title of 20th Lord Botreaux on 13th January 1844.

He was aided and abetted in his financial affairs by Henry Padwick the moneylender. The Marquis died the following year, on 10th November  1868, aged only twenty-six, a physical ruin and an outcast from his peers. He had catastrophically squandered his fortune by gambling on the Findon trained horse.

Henry Padwick, who had been instrumental in the downfall of the Marquis, also drank and dined too much and later in life ruined his health. He eventually grew somewhat quarrelsome in old age due to his numerous attacks of gout and he died in 1880.

Henry Chaplin in 1907.

By contrast, Chaplin became a stalwart figure of the day as a politician and a Viscount. He married Florence, the daughter of the of the Duke of Sutherland, who in the short time allowed, brought him more pleasurable joy and understanding than her deceitful predecessor. She died five years after their wedding.

On race days, Chaplin was a familiar figure driving his guests to the Lincoln races in his own four-in-hand carriage. He was greeted on the course by an enthusiastic reception, equalling that only of royalty. Despite his enormous win with the Derby, Chaplin managed to eventually also ruin himself financially. As a young man he had an inheritance of considerable estates and land in Lincolnshire from his uncle. By the turn of the century they had all been sold and he was compelled to divide his declining years between his late wife's Sutherland seats.

What happened to the legend Hermit, the chestnut who trained on the Findon Downs and became the Derby winner in a frightful snowstorm? His ordeal did him no harm because he topped the winning list of stallions from 1880 and 1886. His offspring won 846 races between 1873 and 1879. He went on to sire five classic winners, including the Derby winners of 1882 and 1883. The great horse died aged twenty-six on 29th April 1890 at Blankney in Lincolnshire and his skeleton was left to the Museum of the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons.

In July 2002, I heard from Victoria Van Patten —

What a nice way to end the love story.

A bit later in 2002, I heard from Ellen Elder —

Continue if you would like to read  The Mystery of Hermit Terrace

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