LORD GEORCiE BENTINCK. (57 



moment to Crucitix, with the aniniiiLs against which she had to contend, 

 than granting five minutes' start would be to Edward Hanlan against 

 any sculler now living. In fact, it would have been almost impossible 

 to have handicapped Crucifix on that day with any mare of her age. 

 so superlative was her superiority over all her contemporaries. Lord 

 George won £20,000 over this race, and about three times that 

 amount altogether upon his renowned mare. But this was but a droj) 

 in the ocean to his enormous expenses. His nominations, as we have 

 said, were legion, and his forfeits consequently immense. When 

 congratulated once upon having won £'6,000 upon the St. Leger, he 

 said, " And the forfeits, eh ? what do they amount to ? Winning 

 £6,000, do you call it ?" The Racing Calendar alone can furnish a 

 true statement of the heavy engagements in the Derby, Oaks, St. 

 Leger, Goodwood, Chester, Liverpool and York entries, into which 

 Lord George Bentinck plunged during his turf career ; nor can any 

 other authority give a notion of the innumerable matches made and 

 contended for by his lordship, whose consummate judgment and 

 unrivalled " stable science " were more conspicuously displayed in 

 match-making than, perhaps, in any other department of the great 

 sport to which he was so passionately attached. Great as his out- 

 goings were — and his average outlay for nearly twenty years was 

 £10,000 per annum — it has been calculated that his winnings just 

 balanced them. The one great triumph, however, for which he toiled 

 and schemed, was denied him. I^ord George never won the Derby. 

 In 1843 he was fairly convinced that in Gaper he had a horse equal 

 to the task of securing for him at last the great " Olympian Prize ; " 

 and on Gaper his lordship, it is said, stood to win £150,000. But 

 though Lord George entertained the most sanguine belief that 

 Gaper would win, he was too good a judge to lose sight of Cother- 

 stone, in whom he considered that he had a most formidable 

 opponent ; consequently, he backed the latter to win him a great stake, 

 £30,000 ; and thus, although Gaper was not even placed, his owner 

 made a good Derby of that eventful year. At the Goodwood Meeting 

 of 1846, when Lord George was at the zenith of his fame as a turfite, 

 the sporting world was astounded to hear that he had parted with 

 the whole of his racing stud, at an almost nominal price. He dis- 

 posed of it, in fact, at a ivord. 



" The lot, Payne," said he to George Payne, at Goodwood, " from 

 Bay Middleton to Little Kitchener" (his " feather-weight "jockey), 

 "for 10,000? Yes or no?" 



" 1 will give £300 till breakfast-time to-morrow to consider the 

 matter, Bentinck," replied George Payne. "Give me till then, and 

 I will say yes or no." 



"With pleasure, my dear fellow," said his lordship, with nonchalant 

 acquiescence, apparently not giving the matter a second thought, 

 till reminded of the circumstance by Payne handing him a 

 cheque for £300 over his muffin, refusing the offer with as much 

 nonchalance as it was made, and returning to his morning paper 



