East Cowes Castle way that even throughout the summer, the ice would not melt. The castle had a battery of eight guns, from which Royal Salutes were often fired, when the Royal Yacht was visiting Cowes. This exact copy of the original East Cowes Castle was built on Lough Cooter, County Galway in 1814. As described, East Cowes Castle was originally designed, built and owned by the famous architect John Nash, who was the protegé of the Prince Regent, who was to become King George IV. The circumstances surrounding its creation was that Charles Vereker, 2nd Viscount Gort happened to visit East Cowes
The Merry Monarch Monarch started at odds of 15/1 in a record field of thirty one runners. These official odds however, were offered jointly for The Merry Monarch and his stable companion Doleful: according to "The Sporting Magazine", odds of 35/1 would have been more accurate reflection of the actual betting. The start of the race was delayed by almost an hour by a series of false starts and an incident in which one of the leading contenders, Alarm was kicked by The Libel. Alarm threw off his jockey, Nat Flatman, ran into a chain fence and then galloped loose down the course