72 FAMOUS RACING MEN. 



long as an Englishman has any taste for the amusement, or any sym- 

 pathy and admiration for one who alone effected what a whole body 

 allowed themselves unequal to attempt." 



Two characteristic anecdotes of Lord George may well serve to 

 close this sketch of his career as a racing man. A person who owed 

 him £4,000 for bets, called upon him, and having explained his utter 

 inability to pay in full, tendered ten shillings in the pound down, 

 promising to pay the remaining moiety of the debt by instalments. 

 " Sir," replied Lord Greorge, " no man has a right to bet if he cannot 

 pay should he lose. The sum I want of you is £4,000 ; and, until 

 that is paid, you are in the list of defaulters in the ring and on the 

 course." 



We alluded, in the early part of our sketch, to I^ord George's 

 detestation of duelling. Nevertheless, he was once obliged to go 

 out, and his opponent was none other than the redoubtable Squire 

 Osbaldeston. The quarrel originated in a betting transaction between 

 the parties at Heaton Park. At the Newmarket Craven Meeting 

 Mr. Osbaldeston, riding up to Lord George Bentinek, said, "Lord 

 George, I want £400, won of you at Heaton Park." To this the 

 reply was, " You want £400 that you swindled me out of at Heaton 

 Park." Such a rejoinder hardly admitted of an apology ; and, after 

 the usual preliminary arrangements, they met to fight a duel. It 

 fell to Lord George Bentinck's lot to fire first. His pistol missed 

 fire, whereupon, without any appearance of excitement, he said to his 

 adversary, "Now, Squire, it is 2 to 1 in your favour." "Is it?" 

 said his opponent ; " why, then, the bet's otf," and discharged the 

 contents of his pistol in the air. 



JOHN GULLY. 



WHEN Martin Chuzzlewitt, on his memorable voyage to Eden, 

 was perpetually told that almost every other person he met 

 was " one of the most remarkable men in the country," he grew so 

 tired with what Falstaff would have called " the damnable iteration," 

 that he longed to be brought in contact with " the most remarkable 

 man in the country," and so make a blessed end. It is with something 

 of the same feeling that, after giving sketches of a number of strange 

 and remarkable characters on the turf, we come at length to John 

 Gully, whom we may perhaps fairly describe as the most remarkable 

 man the sporting world has seen — at any rate in the present century. 

 Butcher, prizefighter, publican, hell-keeper, bookmaker, owner of 

 race-horses, member of Parliament, and fine old English country 

 gentleman — all these heterogeneous elements were combined in the 

 person of John Gully, winner of two Derbys and a St. Leger, and 

 sometime Radical M.P. for Pontefract. A brief sketch of his extra- 

 ordinary career cannot fail, therefore, to be interesting to all who 



