86 LORD GEORGE BENTINCK 



and in a variety of ways, than most men, and, indeed, 

 lost a fortune through the duplicity of others. But he 

 remained to the last, though poor, an upright, straight- 

 forward, honest English gentleman, and would never 

 have asked Lord George,' or anyone else, for anything 

 that he did not know he was fairly entitled to receive. 

 To my thinking, and I shall not be alone in the conclu- 

 sion, his lordship should either have paid the Squire, or 

 given proof that he was not indebted to him in some 

 other way than the brusque one of saying, ' You swindled 

 me out of it.' His behaviour in the duel itself, on the 

 other hand, gave evidence, not needed, of the possession 

 of courage and a superb nonchalance. But so much 

 cannot be said as to the origin of it. For his lordship, 

 if he felt himself aggrieved, could have appealed to the 

 tribunal that is open to other people who have disputed 

 bets. That he did not object to such an appeal, we have 

 proof in the Eidsdale affair ; and therefore we may sup- 

 pose that he would have had recourse to the same 

 remedy, had he thought himself in the right. One thing 

 appears certain, that if his lordship could not win or 

 run a dead-heat, he could always raise a wrangle in 

 which art he was more an adept on the racecourse than 

 at college. 



There is^a wide belief that his lordship was generous, 

 and I am not going to contravene the truth of the con- 

 clusion. Indeed, he has been represented as the most 

 liberal of patrons. His last trainer might possibly put a 

 different complexion on the matter, and I have my own 

 personal experience on the point. I certainly do not 

 blame, but rather commend him, in that he was not so 

 lavish and indiscriminate in his gifts as more recent 

 owners of racehorses have been. I certainly was never 

 the recipient of his bounty, in all the trials I rode and 



