22 May? Well, then: it must be the 156th anniversary of the day one aristocrat got his own back on another — who three years earlier had stolen his fiancée — via the medium of a spectacular win at the Derby.
Our story starts in the summer of 1864, when Lady Florence Cecilia Paget (known in society as ‘The Pocket Venus’) became betrothed to Henry, 1st Viscount Chaplin — moneyed, landed, and chums with the Prince of Wales (the one who was later Edward VII).
Henry was a few years away from becoming a long-standing MP, and had a stately home, Blankney Hall. Unfortunately for him, he also had a friend, with whom he shared a name…
Henry Weysford Charles Plantagenet Rawdon-Hastings, 4th Marquess of Hastings, thought that wasn’t the only thing they should share. Well, more accurately, thought he’d like Florence for himself.
In a further unfortunate turn for Henry Chaplin, Florence — engaged though she was — fell for Henry R-H. Still, at least Chaplin didn’t know anything about it. Well, until the day in July 1864 when she had him take her shopping on Oxford Street to complete her wedding outfit.
Apparently, she had already shown her wedding dress to her father, but presumably, a few last-minute bits and pieces were needed. Anyway, off to Marshall & Snelgrove’s they trotted, where Chaplin remained in the carriage. The young Lady Paget walked into the shop, passed straight through and out the other side. There, she got into another carriage with the 4th Marquess of Hastings, and they both went straight to St George’s, Hanover Square, and got married.
At least, that’s the popular version. According to Chaplin’s memoir, he wasn’t there.
On this fateful morning. Lady Florence, on the plea of making some final purchases, drove alone — unattended by a servant, which was unusual in those days.
Either way, it was bound to cause a scandal: a friend of the Prince of Wales! Cuckolded! And not by the Prince of Wales?
Anyway, as soon as practicable after the ceremony, according to the memoir, Florence wrote to Henry the first to tell him what had happened:
The newlyweds then naffed off to either Leicestershire or India (depending on your source) until the scandal died down. (If it was Leicestershire, they were holed up at Donington Hall, which later played host to motorsport and the Monsters of Rock Festival, fact fans.)
Only three years later, on 22 May 1867, it was Derby day, and the stage was apparently set for another pretty poor day for Henry Chaplin. His horse, Hermit, had had a blood clot, and wasn’t expected to run, but nearer the date it seemed to be recovering.
Hermit was still a longshot, though — a no-hoper, in fact, at 1000–15. Henry Rawdon-Hastings didn’t have a horse in the race, so bet heavily against Hermit — and wasn’t in as much of a position to do so as we might think. According to Henry Chaplin’s memoir (actually by his daughter, but either way, unlikely to be studiously impartial), things were a little shaky for Henry R-H. In fact, he said, his former fiancée:
Hermit won by a neck, and Rawdon-Hastings was ruined. He died penniless a year later. This could have been bad news for Florence, had she not swiftly married Sir George Chetwynd, 4th Baronet of Brocton Hall, allowing her to live on in comfort into the 20th century.
Henry Chaplin, intriguingly, was not put off women called Florence, and went on to marry Lady Florence Sutherland-Leveson-Gower, have a successful political career, and “buy horses as if he was drunk and bet as if he was mad”.
