64 LORD GEORGE BENTINCK 



crown of gold as a fitting tribute for such eminent ser- 

 vices.' But how did he show his gratitude? By, 

 within a very short space of time, persecuting him with 

 the most bitter malignity, until his lordship left Dane- 

 bury, and even after ! 



At the stud Bay Middleton was a gigantic failure. I 

 remember that when the man who came to Danebury to 

 take him to Doncaster, where most of his lordship's 

 mares were kept ' a tyke,' I need not say saw him, he 

 remarked derisively : 



' If he was not Say Middleton, he would have to beg 

 his bread in Yorkshire.' 



I cannot call to mind so good a horse, with such run- 

 ning blood in his veins, so bad a sire. He was the largest 

 thoroughbred I ever saw, very tall, nearly seventeen 

 hands high, with a bad middle, being as shallow in his 

 fore-ribs as he was light in his back, and stood wretchedly 

 bad on his fore-legs upright as a walking-stick and 

 light below the knee. He had forty to fifty of the best 

 mares put to him for many years, and, if I remember 

 right, got very few good ones for his lordship himself. 

 Of his produce, Flying Dutchman, the winner of the 

 Derby and St. Leger, was Lord Eglinton's ; and Andover, 

 also a Derby winner, was bred by Mr. William Etwall, 

 of Longstock, Hants once a Bluecoat boy. Nor were 

 Hermit, Aphrodite, or Vanderdecken bred by Lord George. 

 But the following two were : Farintosh out of Camarine's 

 dam, a most beautiful yearling, and heavily engaged 

 but he became a roarer, and was good for nothing ; and 

 Gaper, who could run, but was far from a good horse. 

 Several of the rest he bred won many races, but none 

 were first-class horses, and nothing like so good as their 

 sire, though many resembled him in shape and lightness 

 under the knee, 



