350 THE JOCKEY CLUB 



George Bentinck, no doubt, used to maintain that 

 nobody but a Croesus could afford to race without 

 betting ; but that noble lord, though he did a great 

 deal to improve the Turf, and more than any among 

 his brethren of the Jockey Club to augment the com- 

 fort and pleasure of the public at race-meetings, did 

 some very queer things, uttered some very unsound 

 doctrine, and in many respects was a very unsafe 

 guide, philosopher, and friend. He was very hard on 

 the man who lost 4,OOOL to him, and asked for time 

 to settle ; so that there is the less hesitation in being 

 hard on him (dead though he be) and saying, by a 

 paraphrase of his own stern remark, that ' no man 

 has a right to keep racehorses if he cannot pay for 

 them out of his own pocket.' No doubt one of the 

 reasons why horse-racing was called 'the sport of 

 kings ' was that those potentates (being then able 

 to tax their subjects ad libitum almost) were at the 

 head of the very few who could stand the expense of 

 horse-racing, as a rule, though of course a few ' small 

 men ' might occasionally light upon a horse or mare 

 that would be as good as a gold-mine (witness 'Kelly 

 with Eclipse, and the I'Ansons with Queen Mary). 

 Horse-breeding is, of course, a business, and a 

 legitimate profit may be expected justly from it ; but 

 horse-racing is not only a test, but above all a sport, 

 and why a man should expect to make money out of it 

 any more than out of any other sport or fancy, out of 

 yachting, or hunting, or shooting, or gardening, passes 



