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CHAPTER XVII. 



LORD GEORGE BENTINCK AND THE EVOLUTION OF THE MODERN TURF. 



" Censor Mornm Castigaforque." 



" What though no Dinner Stakes e'er greet the sight, 

 Nor Port nor Claret thirsty soul* invite ; 

 What though no Garden stakes can boast their reign, 

 Nor ancient Oatlands spread their rich domain ! 

 Can these alone a truebotn sportsman fire 

 These only fan an Englishman's desire ? 

 Not so. The glory of the Whip shall last, 

 If I may judge the future by the past, 

 While grow on land PotSos, Sharks on seas, 

 While Drones give trouble to the lab 1 ring bees, 

 While Creepers spread, while smiths the Anvil raise, 

 And in each sign St. George the Dragon slays, 

 While lives in Egypt's variable story 

 Tli". Sultan's, Mameluke's or Memnon's glory!" 



r T ^HE writer of this punning epitaph on various defunct races, buoyed up, as he 

 undoubtedly was, by the thought of the many sires and winners he knew, 

 would have been very much surprised if he could have seen the future which he 

 proposed to "judge by the past." The period of extraordinary development which 

 is associated with the name of Sir Charles Bunbury and his friends, produced, as 

 was inevitable, a few of those evils which are the necessary concomitants of abnormal 

 growth. If the Turf was to become a national institution those evils had to be 

 checked by one who was conversant with their growth no faddist, but a man made 

 strong by knowledge, and a man whose position would give him wide authority in 

 other spheres than those of racing. Lord George Bentinck was the man for the 

 occasion. He effected one of the revolutions in Turf procedure, which has since 



