he first applied in order to win a wager: 'A famous match was at
that time pending at Newmarket between two horses that were in every
respect as nearly equal as possible. Lord March, one evening at
Ranelagh, expressed his regret to Sir Francis Delaval that he was
not able to attend Newmarket at the next meeting. "I am obliged,"
said he, "to stay in London; I shall, however, be at the Turf
Coffee-house; I shall station fleet horses on the road to bring me
the earliest intelligence of the event of the race, and I shall
manage my bets accordingly."

'I asked at what time in the evening he expected to know who was
winner. He said about nine in the evening. I asserted that I should
be able to name the winning horse at four o'clock in the afternoon.
Lord March heard my assertion with so much incredulity, as to urge
me to defend myself; and at length I offered to lay five hundred
pounds that I would in London name the winning horse at Newmarket at
five o'clock in the evening of the day when the great match in
question was to be run.'

The wager was however given up when Edgeworth told Lord March that
he did not depend upon the fleetness or strength of horses to carry
the desired intelligence.

His friend, Sir Francis Delaval, immediately put up under his
directions an apparatus between his house and part of Piccadilly. He
adds: 'I also set up a night telegraph between a house which Sir
Francis Delaval occupied at Hampstead, and one to which I had access
in Great Russell Street, Bloomsbury. This nocturnal telegraph
answered well, but was too expensive for common use.' Later on he
writes to Dr. Darwin: