186 LORD GEORGE AS A LETTER- WRITER. 



served to me " that he had not time to read Lord 

 George's endless yarns about his race-horses at 

 Danebmy." It must be remembered, however, 

 that old John Day was not much of a scholar, and 

 that his own letters were of the briefest. I will 

 not deny that my father and I sometimes found 

 it difficult to answer Lord George's letters in full, 

 as they frequently covered six, seven, or eight 

 sheets of note-paper ; but, as evidences of his 

 Lordship's astonishing industry, and of the intense 

 interest which he took in the minutest details of 

 a pursuit to which his whole heart and mind were 

 given up, I propose to print a few letters from his 

 pen which were received on various occasions by 

 my father and myself, as I am quite sure that no 

 other owner of race-horses ever wrote to his trainer 

 almost every day of his life, and at such length 

 as Lord George frequently found necessary, in order 

 to express his meaning fully. 



I have selected for my purpose a few specimens 

 which will derive interest from the fact that most 

 of them have for their subject what I verily believe 

 to have been one of the three best race-horses ever 

 owned by Lord George — to wit. Gaper. If this 

 horse had been by a sounder stallion than Bay 

 Middleton — say, for instance. Gladiator or Touch- 

 stone — I am fully persuaded that he would have 

 won the Derby as easily as in the Criterion Stakes 

 at Newmarket he beat Cotherstone when both 

 were two-year-olds. As matters stood, however, 



