TRANSACTION WITH WILLIAM SCOTT 83 



anyone laying 7,000 to 2,000 against his own horse 

 would be looked upon with grave suspicion. But who 

 could then, or will now, be inclined to suspect the illus- 

 trious nobleman of doing any other than an honourable 

 action ! At Doncaster, after the race was run, William 

 Scott met him in the rooms at night, and gave him 

 the 2,000. 



' Here, my lord,' he said, ' is your money. It is but 

 the price of a few dirty acres of land.' 



To which, in his mincing, half-ironical, half -sincere 

 way, his lordship replied : 



' Thank you, Mr. Scott ; thank you very much.' 



Lord George, indeed, seemed rather fond of betting 

 with trainers and jockeys, and for large sums, about 

 horses of which he had the control ; and, like the young 

 lady, was easily led for good or for evil. Nevertheless, it 

 should, in justice to him, be frankly admitted that he 

 was always most anxious for their welfare. To keep 

 them untainted from the world and betting was his chief 

 aim and greatest delight. Wagering, he would truly and 

 sympathetically tell them, is a temptation the pernicious 

 effects of which few are able to withstand ; and he 

 would in other ways and more forcible terms impress 

 upon them the danger of indulging in the practice. The 

 instances in which he won a few thousands from my 

 father and from Mr. William Scott, in the manner I 

 have related, are the only exceptions to this valuable 

 and excellent precept that I ever heard of his lordship's 

 making; and that he considered them exceptions we 

 may judge from the fact that, when taking the money, 

 he did not think it necessary to give them gratuitously a 

 moral lecture on the enormity of the offence they had 

 committed. 



On one occasion his lordship was not altogether 



