Two hours after showing her father, the Marquess of Anglesey, the wedding dress in which she was to marry the country squire Henry Chaplin, Lady Florence Paget took a carriage to Marshall & Snelgrove’s department store. Leaving by a side entrance, she was escorted to St George’s Church in Hanover Square where she married Harry Hastings, the fourth Marquis of Hastings. They were back at his Leicestershire estate of Donington Hall before her family knew a thing. It was the ultimate Victorian scandal: the stunningly beautiful Lady Florence was known as the Pocket Venus, Harry Hastings was a rakehell addicted to the cheap cheers of those for whom he bought drinks in East End alehouses and opium dens. He was also a profligate gambler who would hazard £500 a time illegally pitting his cockfighting birds against those of the Duke of Hamilton.
After first consoling himself with a lengthy tiger-shooting expedition to India, Chaplin returned home to pursue a targeted revenge. Hastings had become a racehorse owner on the grand scale, eager to win a Derby. His huge gambles attracted a raffish young racecourse set who followed the fortunes of horses running in the ‘scarlet, white hoops’ of ‘the Plucky Markis’, so Chaplin too became a significant purchaser of racehorses. In the Derby of 1867 Chaplin owned the well-fancied Hermit: Hastings, already in desperate financial straits, opposed Hermit in the betting markets, accommodating those who wanted to back Chaplin’s horse to the tune of £120,000 (£10.1 million in today’s money). For a moment Hastings looked to be in luck: in his final trial Hermit stumbled and coughed, covering his jockey with blood. He had broken a blood vessel and Chaplin was first inclined to scratch him.
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