LORD GEORGE BENT1NCK AND THE EVOLUTION OF THE MODERN TURF. 441 



changed its whole conduct, when he vanned Elis to Don caster, a revolution which 

 can only be paralleled by that created through the rise of telegraphy and the daily 

 press But his reforms were even more important, for if the rascality he checked 

 had been allowed to flourish the grave of the English Thoroughbred might have 

 been dug forthwith. That outburst of the worst forms of villainy was only a natural 

 disease through which the racing body politic had to pass in its progress towards 

 maturity. Accidental symptoms of a similar nature occur in that body at all ages, 

 just as they must do in any healthy organic growth. But those critics who think 

 they are peculiarly encouraged by racing are mistaken. Faddist legislators 

 may be surprised to learn that their agitation at the present time, however 

 excellent may be their motives, would, in its results, be exactly on a par with the 

 schemes of those scoundrels who brought thirty-four " Qui Tam" actions between 

 July i and December 31, 1843, against Lord George Bentinck, Mr. Bowes, 

 Mr. Crockford, Colonel Peel, Mr. Charles Greville, Mr. Henry Hill, the Earl of 

 Eglinton, Sir William H. Gregory, Mr. John Gully, Mr. Peter Cloves, Mr. Henry 

 Justice, Mr. John Baily, and Mr. John Greatrex. If these actions had succeeded the 

 Turf would have received a blow from which it would never have recovered. They 

 were only brought as a deliberate piece of revenge upon Lord George for excluding 

 scoundrels from Goodwood first, and then from all courses under the control of the 

 Jockey Club. After their defeat the Duke of Richmond brought the " Manly Sports 

 Bill" before the House of Lords in February, 1844, and the position of Lord George 

 Bentinck as " Dictator of the Turf" became even more assured than it had been 

 before, for he had some time previously given promise of becoming what he 

 undoubtedly was, the most remarkable racing man of his century. His actual 

 successes would not alone have entitled him to this distinction, for, like the years of 

 his predominance, they were fewer than those of many of his contemporaries. It 

 was from 1830 to 1846 that his influence was especially felt, and before more fully 

 characterising that particular period it may be well to bring the thread of our history 

 up to 1830, and to supply those omissions in it which the tale of the jockeys in the 

 last few pages have still left in my narrative. 



The value to the historian of such fixtures as the St. Leger, Oaks, and Derby is 

 that at least from 1776 it becomes possible to find definite records of the best three- 

 year-olds, and often to learn more about them, both from the pen of the chronicler 

 and the brush of the artist, than might have been possible had not these classic 

 struggles lent a lustre to their names. There were, of course, fine animals " outside 



