LORD GEORGE BENTINCK AND THE EVOLUTION OF THE MODERN TURF. 459 



Radcliffe had gone too, a loss which probably contributed to the withdrawal of 



William IV. from a sport which his sympathy had never very warmly supported. 



But the Turf was fortunate in having such friends as the fourth Duke of Grafton 



(who died in 1844); the fifth Earl of Jersey, who owned Riddleswortli, Glencoc, 



Ibrahim, Bay Middleton, and Achmet ; General Peel, the hero of the Running Rein 



Derby ; and Sir Mark Wood, of Lower Hare Park, who owned those famous mares, 



Camarine and Lucetta. Then there was Major Wilson (Lord Berners), who won the 



One Thousand in 1834 and the Derby in 1837 with Mayday, and Phosphorus, both 



by Lamplighter ; the Marquis of 



Exeter, owner of the flying Galata ; 



Mr. C. Greville ; Mr. Houldsworth; 



Lord Lowther (second Earl of 



Lonsdale), who won with the outsider 



Spaniel; Mr. Batson, who owned 



Plenipotentiary; Mr. John Bowes, 



of Streatlam ; Lord Mostyn, owner of 



Queen of Trumps ; the second Earl 



Grosvenor (afterwards Marquis of 



Westminster), owner of Touchstone; 



Lord Chesterfield, and many more, 



who were more or less contemporary 



with Lord George Bentinck. 



It was appropriate that Lord 

 George's father should have estab- 

 lished by legal decision (in 1827) the 

 right of the Jockey Club to warn off 

 undesirable characters from New- 

 market Heath, and also that the important change should have been instituted about 

 this time of calculating horses' ages from January ist instead of May ist. The air 

 seemed full of reform, and the right man for the work soon made his appearance. 



Lord William George Frederick Cavendish Bentinck was born at Welbeck on 

 February 2 ;th, 1802, the second son of the owner of Tiresias. The Army and Politics 

 did their best to divide him between them as soon as he reached man's estate, and 

 there is a story of a duel in the loth Hussars which does not read very creditably 

 to Lord George, especially as he found it possible later on to swallow his principles 



Lord George Bentinck. 



