94 LORD GEORGE BENTINCK 



a^irm that no man ever ran so many horses in four days 

 in so many races with worse success. 



The following is merely given as a curious specimen, to 

 indicate that, as in everything else he undertook to do, 

 he gave that deep study which enabled him to master all 

 difficulties, even to the intricate matter of finding names 

 for his horses. They are but a few selections, but suffi- 

 cient, I hope, to indicate the general elegance of the 

 nomenclature : Black Gentleman, Coal Black Hose, Devil 

 to Pay, Put on the Pot says Greedy Gut, Devil-me-Care, 

 Nightcap, Such a Getting up Stairs, Here I go with my 

 Eye out, Stop awhile says Sloiv, To Bed to Bed says Sleepy- 

 head, and All Round my Hat. 



Few will be of opinion that Lord George may have 

 been an indifferent judge of racing. I confess I have 

 long been amongst the suspicious minority. He was 

 certainly far off the mark when he thought that Gaper, 

 as a three-year-old, had the slightest chance of winning 

 the Derby with Cotherstone in it. My father at all events 

 did not think so, and laid against him, as anyone had a 

 right to do who was prepared to meet the consequences. 

 From sheer vindictiveness Lord George commenced back- 

 ing him ; and by the weight of money he put on made 

 the horse a favourite, forcing my father, from prudential 

 motives, to hedge, and causing him to lose in this way 

 something over 1,000. But if he lost, Lord George did 

 not come out a winner ; for it must have cost him double 

 this amount in accomplishing his aim of keeping the 

 horse in the market. This was but the Crucifix business 

 over again, transferred from, the son to the father, and 

 enacted at Goodwood. 



This display of vindictivenesa on his lordship's part 

 brings me to the consideration of a subject the cause 

 of Lord George's leaving Danebury which I would 



