14 EARLY YEARS. 



of continued disappointments, he insisted upon 

 perseverino- with him, in the confident belief that 

 one day he would become the sire of a great horse. 

 Although a good honest runner himself, Tiresias 

 was the son of Soothsayer, whose progeny were 

 for the most part big and good looking, but very 

 uncertain customers. In short, Tiresias proved to 

 be as great a failure at the stud as Bay Middleton 

 was, so long as he remained the property of Lord 

 George Bentinck. At last, his Grace resolved to 

 have recourse to better sires than the Derby 

 winner of 1819, and in 1838 his bay colt Boeotian, 

 by Taurus, won eight races, including the Column 

 and Newmarket Stakes, and the St James's Palace 

 Stakes at Ascot. 



Never yet vs^as there a more enthusiastic lover 

 of Newmarket Heath, a large portion of which he 

 owned, than Lord George Bentinck's father. His 

 Grace was never absent from a Newmarket race 

 meeting until old age prevented his attending ; and 

 the training-gallops and race-course at " the little 

 town in Cambridgeshire " were constantly receiving 

 his attention, which involved the outlay of con- 

 siderable sums of money. At the beginning of 

 this century a large portion of what was called 

 "the new ground" on either side of "the Flat" 

 was covered with furze-bushes, which his Grace 

 caused to be stubbed up and cleared away. The 

 land w^as then ploughed and sown with cole-seed 

 or rape, which was fed off with sheep and then 



