Oi 



UNi 



L ORD GEORGE RENTINCK A ND THE EVOL UTION OF THE MODERN TURF. 445 



mind, has more varied and more picturesque associations than any other on the Turf. 

 The very beginning of the St. Leger, before it was named, took place at a time 

 that was full of portents and omens to the greater and the less. Lord North 

 had just got news that the New York colonists were melting down the statue 

 of George III., upon their Bowling Green, into bullets, a new dock had just been 

 opened at Hull, when the first Yorkshire roar at a St. Leger winner swelled into what 

 Byron called the " earthquake shout of victory." The very name the race obtained 



" Ebur" (1814) by " Orville." 



goes back to the foundations of our history. For handsome Jack St. Leger did not 

 bear the motto " Haul et Bon" for nothing. It was with arms and hand resting on 

 a St. Leger that William the Conqueror stepped ashore at Bulverhythe near Hastings, 

 and gave the lands of Ulcombe in Kent to that stout comrade as his guerdon. A 

 Thomas St. Leger married Anne, sister of Edward IV., and widow of the Duke of 

 Exeter. One branch of the family through Lord Lieutenant Anthony, goes to the 

 Donerailes ; another to the Dukes of Rutland. Lord Rockingham could scarce have 

 made better choice. 



VOL. II. 3 N 



