306 LORD GEORGE AS A TURF REFORMER. 



Fortunately Priam was a most docile and trac- 

 table colt, and nothing could exasperate him or 

 ruffle his perfect temper. In the end he won 

 easily, beating twenty - two opponents, some of 

 which were sent to the post without the remotest 

 possibility of being able to run into a place. I 

 have seen all the best horses that have flourished 

 and had their day for more than sixty years past, 

 and I now repeat my well-considered opinion that 

 Priam was the most perfect race-horse I ever saw. 

 His constitution was magnificently sound ; his 

 temperament and nervous system beautifully at- 

 tuned ; his shape, make, and action were fault- 

 less. No weight known to the ' Racing Calendar ' 

 could crush his spirit. All courses came alike to 

 him. I well remember how frequently I rode him 

 at exercise when, in 1831, he came to our stables 

 to run for the Goodwood Cup of that year, which 

 as a four-year-old he won in a canter, carrying 9 

 st. 5 Ib. two miles and a half. That was sixty-one 

 years ago, and I question whether there is any 

 other man still living who ever crossed the back 

 of that " bright particular star " among horses, the 

 beautiful and incomparable Priam the peer of 

 Flying Childers and Eclipse the " horse of the 

 nineteenth century ! " 



Lord George Bentinck's connection with Priam 

 is somewhat remarkable, as it was through his 

 Lordship's instrumentality that in 1831 he was 

 sent to Goodwood, after the Ascot Meeting, to be 



