ii8 CENTURY OF ENGLISH FOX-HUNTING 



time would bring him into unpleasant intimacy with 

 the Jockey Club. One of his favourite habits was 

 to bore his adversary on the rails, so that he could 

 not use his whip, a habit which, to say the least of it, 

 made him a dangerous opponent, and caused him to 

 be extremely unpopular amongst the professional 

 jockeys. At that time the gentleman riders were 

 very few, the only ones of note besides the Squire 

 being Lord Wilton, Captain White, Captain Pettatt, 

 General Bouverie, Captain Percy Williams, and Mr. 

 Delme Radcliffe, and the professionals were exceed- 

 ingly jealous of the gentlemen, more especially of 

 the Squire, who was regarded as the founder of the 

 system. Nor can there be much doubt that they 

 had cause for jealousy, since the gentlemen were 

 allowed considerable latitude in regard to jockeyship, 

 and the jockeys were often afraid to lodge objections 

 on account of the influence which the gentlemen had 

 with the owners. That the standard of racing 

 morality was not so high, nor the light of publicity 

 so searching in the thirties as they are at the present 

 time is now acknowledged. Practices approaching 

 to measurable distance of turf robberies were con- 

 nived at, and a Hercules was urgently needed to 

 clean out the Augean stable. The Squire was not 

 the man to do it, and Lord George Bentinck con- 

 sidered that he was. The facts of the dispute be- 

 tween the two are simple. The Squire had given 

 400 guineas for an Irish colt, by Humphrey Clinker, 

 bred by Mr. Watts, called Rush, which was handi- 



