DANEBURY AND LORD GEORGE BENTINCK 



Surrey retreat of Lord Rosebery. Grey Momus 

 subsequently won the Ascot Cup, beating Caravan, 

 though that horse turned the tables on him in a 

 match at Newmarket in the autumn. 



In the spring of the year of Queen Victoria's 

 accession Lord Chesterfield sold a draft from his 

 stud. His princely fortune was practically gone. 

 He had been Master of the Buckhounds, which 

 he had hunted with unexampled extravagance. 

 For three seasons he had carried the Pytchley 

 horn, and that country had rejoiced in his amazing 

 hospitality. His mode of living at Chesterfield 

 house was modelled on the profusion of Elagabalus. 

 His banquets were the talk of London, and Dolesio, 

 his chef, enjoyed the salary of a Cabinet Minister, 

 and would have been decorated under the Empire. 



This finished artist in extravagance and gambling 

 — with the hel air slightly overdone — this habitue 

 of Newmarket and the race-course, was the sixth 

 holder of the title made famous by Philip Dormer, 

 the fourth Earl, statesman, scholar and letter-writer. 

 " The greatest of all the Chesterfields " ^ hated 

 field sports, and told his son that such amusements 

 were frivolous and the resource of little minds who 

 either do not think or do not love to think. During 

 the whole period of his public service he never 

 touched a card, but on the evening of his resignation 

 of the seals of office he repaired to White's and 

 quietly resumed his seat among the gamblers in 

 the card-room. 



It is notorious that the pious wishes of a testator 

 are seldom fulfilled by the legatee, and certainly 



' The description is Lord Carnarvon's : see Prefatory Memoir 

 to the Letters. 



69 



