214 RACING. 



and indentations made by the feet of the horses when they gal- 

 loped. On the average of each year Kent had from 40 to 50 

 horses running at the Goodwood meeting, and one year he 

 started no less than 75 during the four days, all of which he 

 saddled with his own hands. Upon one occasion the home 

 stable w^on 14,000/. (then regarded as an enormous sum) during 

 the week, including such stakes as the Ham, Gratwicke, 300 sovs. 

 for four-year-olds, 300 sovs. for two-year-olds, the Lavant, the 

 200 sovs. for two-year-olds, the Racing Stakes, and several more. 

 The engagements which Kent made yearly for Lord George 

 were enormous, involving in forfeits alone such annual sums as 

 15,000/., 16,000/., and, in 1845, 18,000/. As might naturally be 

 expected, the management and control of such a stud imposed 

 an amount of labour upon its head the like of which no other 

 trainer was ever subjected to. Lord George, as Mr. Greville 

 says of him, ' did nothing by halves ; ' and his correspondence 

 wnth Kent, consisting often of letters fiUing four, five, and even 

 six sheets of note-paper, gave earnest of the capacity for work 

 which he devoted during the last two years of his life to his 

 newly-assumed duties as a politician. It will readily be believed 

 that Kent seldom had more than four hours in bed, and that 

 during the racing season he was travelling most nights, always, 

 however, in a first-class railway carriage, upon which Lord George 

 insisted for more reasons than one. The annual expense of 

 travelling with Lord George's horses amounted to about 3,500/. 

 or 3,600/. ; but, before the railway era had commenced, the work 

 of getting from Goodwood to various race-meetings was still more 

 laborious. It took, for instance, seven days to go with horses 

 from Goodwood to Newmarket, four to Epsom and Ascot, and 

 nearly a fortnight to Doncaster. In a single day Kent had 

 often to employ three horses, under saddle or in harness, to 

 get through the work. After the introduction of vans, first 

 designed by Lord George in 1836, the expenses of locomotion 

 were prodigiously augmented. In order to convey his horses 

 to the scene of action, it was frequently necessary for Kent to 

 leave Goodwood with three double, and two single vans, 



