90 LORD GEORGE BENTINCK 



Freeborough, his valet, on the back seat, often half 

 starved with cold or drenched with rain. He drove 

 always at a great pace, and rode, like Lord Palmerston, 

 furiously without judgment, whether on the road, across 

 country, or on the downs. As for railways, in those 

 days many of them were not finished, and some of those 

 now completed were not even thought of; and stage- 

 coaches and posting, though costly (two shillings a mile), 

 were the most expeditious and best means of travelling 

 to and from the several meetings. The Drummer and 

 Elis had, in 1836, the honour of being taken to Don- 

 caster in a van, drawn by four horses, made for the 

 express purpose by Herring, of the New Road, London, 

 though the fashion of it was due to his lordship's inven- 

 tive faculty. 



He never rode but twice in public as a jockey, that I 

 remember. In 1824 he rode and won, after two dead- 

 heats, a little race at Goodwood, on Olive, a horse be- 

 longing to a Mr. Poyntz. But subsequently, on Captain 

 Cook, at the same place, over the Cup course, he made 

 such an exhibition of himself in the match with Larry 

 McHail, having Lord Maidstone, now the Earl of Win- 

 chilsea and Nottingham, for his opponent, that, as if 

 conscious of his own incapacity, he never sported silk 

 again. Then, also, his performance as a starter, so much 

 talked of at the time, was not a success. The wonder 

 is, and ever will be, that he should have undertaken to 

 teach the starter his duties, without knowing anything 

 whatever of them himself. But these, if failings, were 

 but foibles that anyone may be guilty of without re- 

 proach. 



In his family and social relations he betrayed certain 

 idiosyncrasies not usually regarded as the complement 

 of a noble mind. The Duchess of Portland was buried, 



