Army Career and Sporting Life
Although he came from a naval family, Cotton was happier on horseback or driving horses and decided to join a cavalry regiment, the 10th Hussars or Light Dragoons. He served in Portugal as a lieutenant but was retired on half-pay in 1830 after three years. On his return to England he took up a life of sport and gambling, and became a well-known figure at sporting events and Crockford's. He hunted in Leicestershire, played cricket for the Marylebone Cricket Club, and attended race meetings and boxing matches where he was known as Vinny Cotton, Sir Vincent Twist, or the Baronet. On occasion he was involved in brawls, and was once quoted as advising brawlers to "pitch into the big rosy men, but if you see a little lemon-faced nine-stone man, have nothing to do with him". In 1836, having lost much of his fortune at the gaming tables, he bought the Age stagecoach which ran between London and Brighton. Cotton drove the coach for two years, before his mother's ill health caused him to return to Madingley.
Read more about this topic: St Vincent Cotton
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