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beautiful nuns from diverse backgrounds and faiths. They were required to submit entirely to her authority, and to behave in a demure manner, avoiding excesses of eating and drinking. But they were to show no such restraint in the bedroom, where their brief was to demonstrate ‘le zèle le plus sincère pour les rites et les cérémonies de la déesse de Cypros’ (the most devoted zeal in the rites and ceremonies of the Cyprian goddess). At a time when venereal diseases were widespread, the nunneries offered some degree of security to their patrons by ensuring that the nuns received weekly medicals. A gentleman, who was also expected to behave with decorum, could pass entire evenings there, eating a fine meal, enjoying musical performances, and at the end retiring with his chosen nun. As a bonus, it was all very reasonably priced.
    On her return to London, Mrs Goadby set about reproducing these attractions, except the pricing. At her establishment in Great Marlborough Street, Soho, you could spend up to £50 – £20 more than Dennis’s annual salary as Lady —’s chairman – for just the sex. But gentlemen who had been on the Grand Tour, and who had experienced the splendours of continental brothels, were delighted to find such services on their doorsteps. The Covent Garden Magazine announced excitedly: ‘Mrs Goadby, thatcelebrated Lady Abbess, having fitted up an elegant nunnery in Marlborough Street, is now laying in a choice stock of virgins for the ensuing season. She has disposed her nunnery in such an uncommon taste, and prepared such an extraordinary accommodation for gentlemen of all ages, tastes and caprices, as it is judged will far surpass every seminary of the kind yet known in Europe.’ Elizabeth Armistead (Charles James Fox’s future wife) started her career as one of Mrs Goadby’s nuns.
    Charlotte Hayes saw this market as her opportunity too, and Dennis was able to help. Their relationship was one of true partners, sharing the rewards of their labours. In the Fleet, she had provided the funds to get him back into circulation; now he was in a position to reciprocate, and, through his sporting connections, to bring her a classy clientele. She opened a serail near Mrs Goadby’s in Great Marlborough Street, and attracted regulars including the Duke of Richmond, the Earls of Egremont and Grosvenor, Lord Foley and Sir William Draper. Not only did these men bring prestige to Charlotte’s establishment, they also – being gamblers as well as philanderers – offered synergy, as we say nowadays, with Dennis’s business interests.
    10 He won the bet. Trentham was first, Pyrrhus second, and their rival, Pincher, third.
    11 From Pierce Egan’s Sporting Anecdotes (1804).
    12 Knighted in 1761, Sir John was known as the Blind Beak of Bow Street. He had lost his sight in a naval accident, and was reputed to have been able to recognize three thousand criminals from the sounds of their voices. He had taken over as chief magistrate of London on the death in 1754 of his half brother Henry.
    13 The Sporting Magazine (December 1795).
    14 Eighteenth-century reports often gave only initials, or initials with a few other letters. In formulas such as En—l—d, the attempt at concealment was feeble.
    15 See chapter 1.
    16 The Sporting Magazine (January 1796).
    17 From Seymour Harcourt’s The Gaming Calendar and Annals of Gaming (1820).

7

Coup de Foudre
    W ILLIAM WILDMAN DID NOT get where he was in business without the talent of foresight. If, he reasoned, Eclipse turned out to be the superstar that the Mickleham team thought he was, the horse’s unfashionable sire, Marske, would suddenly become a valuable property. Breeders would pay good money to send their mares to Marske, hoping to produce Eclipse mark two. So Wildman travelled down to a farm near Ringwood in Hampshire, where Marske’s progenitive worth had risen to three guineas a