4 EARLY YEARS. 



incumbent upon me to tell to the best of my ability 

 the story of his racing life as I knew and saw it 

 from day to day. Having known the Turf and all 

 its prominent patrons more or less intimately for 

 nearly sixty years, I can conscientiously aver that 

 the century which is now so near its end has pro- 

 duced but one Lord George Bentinck. To this 

 conviction I hope to gain the assent of those of 

 my readers who have the patience to read this 

 book from its first page to its last, and to forgive 

 its many imperfections and shortcomings. 



At an early age it was thought desirable that 

 Lord George, after leaving Eton, should have some 

 profession, and he entered the army, by joining the 

 9th Lancers, and eventually attained the rank of 

 Major in the 2d Life Guards ; but as a military 

 career offered him little prospect of profit or pro- 

 motion, and as he was far from being insensible to 

 the attractions of London society, he retired from 

 the army in 1827. 



The celebrated George Canning, who had mar- 

 ried the sister of Lord George's mother, found in 

 his Lordship one of the best and most energetic 

 of private secretaries ; for he had all the qualities, 

 such as sagacity, grace of manner, knowledge of 

 human nature, method in business, shrewdness in 

 negotiation, and skill and indefatigability in con- 

 ducting epistolary correspondence, which such an 

 office is generally supposed to require. At the 

 same time, it presented to his Lordship one of the 



