84 LORD GEORGE BENTINCK 



pleased with myself. Before his horses were removed 

 to Goodwood, Ratsbane ran for and won the Brighton 

 Stakes in a thick fog. But, on returning to the scales, 

 he was objected to on the ground that he had gone the 

 wrong side of a post. After examination, the stewards 

 decided that it was not intended that the horse should 

 go round this particular post, and awarded the race to 

 the winner. An hour or so afterwards Toby Wakefield 

 (or, as he was facetiously styled, ' the Vicar ') came up 

 on Sir John, then Mr., Shelley's Tawny Owl, and claimed 

 the race, he having in it bolted to some neighbouring 

 village. He declared that he was the only one that had 

 gone the right course ; and, strange as it may appear, 

 the stewards reversed their former decision, and there 

 and then awarded the race to him, but for what reason I 

 could never see. Lord George was naturally greatly 

 annoyed, and had me up to London before lawyers and 

 others to swear I went the right course. This I could 

 not, and would not, do; and consequently he had to 

 give up the suit which he had commenced against the 

 stewards for the recovery of the stakes, and thought but 

 little of me afterwards. Yet, was his lordship quite 

 in the right in wanting, indeed, almost insisting upon 

 my swearing I was but a boy at the time to a thing 

 that he must have been well aware it was impossible for 

 me to know? For who could see the exact course he 

 went in a fog so thick as to have been almost absolute 

 darkness ? 



On one occasion, it may be remembered, Lord George 

 accused Mr. George Osbaldeston, of all people in the 

 world, of swindling, and immediately received a challenge 

 which he was obliged to accept. This incident is thus 

 recorded by a contemporary ; ' We alluded, in the early 

 part of our sketch, to Lord George's detestation of 



