LOKD GEOKCxE KENTINCK. 65 



secretary. Uut Castlereagh died suddenly, Canning became Foreign 

 Secretary and leader of the House of Commons, and Lord Greorge 

 Bentinck was appointed private secretary to his relative, instead of 

 undertaking the otfice of military secretary, as he had expected. After 

 discharging the duties of this honorary appointment for three years 

 with great zeal and ability, his attention was directed once more to 

 his first choice among professions. The change came about in this 

 way : Lord (leorge was riding off Newmarket Heath on his cob, in 

 company with the Duke of York, then Commander-in-Chief, who 

 loved horse-racing as much as the young officer by his side, when, 

 after a little pleasant chat, he made his companion a presentation to 

 an unattached majority, then vacant. But Lord Greorge Bentinck's 

 connection with the army was not destined to last, for two years later 

 he was elected to Parliament by the Borough of Lynn, and shortly 

 afterwards his name ceased to appear in the Army List. It was 

 only natural that the son of his father should take kindly to racing 

 (the Duke of Portland won the Derby in 1819 with Tiresias), and we 

 find Lord George early courting the honours of the cap and jacket, 

 though he was not precisely the build of man from which the ablest 

 jockeys spring. In 1824 he rode a winning race over his favourite 

 course. Goodwood, on Mr. Poyntz's Olive ; and it seems to have been 

 a terrible tussle, for there were two dead-heats between Olive and 

 Swindon, and then " a jealous who shall ? " for the third. When, more- 

 over, we learn that the beaten man on this occasion was the Hon. F. 

 Berkeley, a first-rate performer in the pig-skin, it may be fairly taken 

 for granted that Lord George had become quite as good a horseman 

 across the flat as he had already proved himself over a country. His 

 last appearance in public, as an amateur jockey, was also at Goodwood, 

 in the year 1844, when he rode his Cup Course match on Captain Cook 

 against Lord oNIaidstone on Larry McHale. On this occasion both 

 the noble riders, who, by the way, had gone through a regular course 

 of "wasting" for the event, were fined five pounds for being late in 

 going to scale ; and Lord George, who had always been terribly 

 severe upon professionals for such irregularities, was mercilessly 

 chaffed by his friends for not acting up to his principles, and setting 

 a good example. Lord George won the match, but a})parently more 

 by good luck than good horsemanship, for " The Druid " says, " Many 

 a jockey-boy grinned derisively when he saw his lordship making 

 all the running, and shaking and punishing his roarer, Captain Cook, 

 right fmiously, long after the colt had hung out signals of distress." 

 About the year 1833 Lord George started a small racing stud of his 

 own, but ran his horses at first under the name of John Day, who 

 trained for him. He was the first who ])ut into practice the system 

 of " vanning " racehorses from one meeting to another ; and, although 

 the innovation was derided and laughed at, owners and trainers soon 

 found the advantage of following suit, for walking horses long dis- 

 tances by road took a good deal out of them. In 1836 Lord (feorge 

 won his first great triumph with Elis, who secured for him the St. 



