A HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH TURF. 



running of the wrong horse ; and in spite of all the uncertainty of his physical 

 temperament, he scorned such new-fangled luxuries as overcoats or knickerbockers, 

 and wore his wide white trousers with determination to the end. When he died the 

 poor of Paisley mourned for him, and the Turf lost one of the most manly and 

 characteristic of its supporters. 



If the mantle of Sir Charles Bunbury fell upon Lord George Bentinck, the 

 third " Dictator of the Turf," Admiral Rous, may be fairly said to have done more 

 than either of them, if we measure reform by the surviving facts ; and there are 



many who think that "a little of the 

 Admiral " would not be a 'bad recipe 

 either for His Majesty's Ministers in 

 1903, or for Racing Headquarters 

 in the same year of grace. The 

 Admiral showed that it is not neces- 

 sary to own a large stud, or to make 

 huge bets, to be able to control and 

 improve the affairs of the Turf. He 

 scarcely owned a dozen horses of his 

 own, and his betting was strictly in 

 the "ten-pound line of business." He 

 believed, and often asserted, that the 

 power of the Jockey Club was solely 

 based upon its moral force. History, 

 as we have seen in these pages, 

 proves that he was right then. Such 

 men as Lord Crewe, Mr. Fitzwilliam, 

 Lord March, and others, provided 



sufficient evidence at the end of the nineteenth century that he is right still. 

 His reputation in the Navy was made for ever when he steered the rudderless 

 frigate "Pique" safely home in twenty days from Labrador in 1835. It is not 

 without significance that the picture of the ship he saved now hangs in the 

 Jockey Club Rooms at Newmarket. The Turf, when Admiral Rous became a 

 steward, wanted good handling and courageous steering almost as badly. He was 

 a member of Parliament for Westminster for five years after his election in 1838, 

 but by 1845 he had begun to devote himself almost entirely to the interests of the 



Admiral Rous. 



