236 GAINS IN 1844 AND 1845. 



mentarv duties towards the close of 1845 and at 

 the beginning of 1846 made it difficult for him to 

 give as much attention to his stud as he had be- 

 stowed upon it during many previous years. Mr 

 Greville truly said of Lord George that " he did 

 nothing by halves," and the necessity of main- 

 taining the position which he had taken up in 

 the House of Commons and in the country weighed 

 heavily upon his mind. Among the few books 

 written by friends and contemporaries of Lord 

 George Bentinck, there is none, within my limited 

 knowledge, which affords a clearer insight into 

 his Lordship's character than the ' Correspondence 

 and Diaries of the Right Honourable John Wilson 

 Croker,' which appeared in 1884. From it I 

 venture to quote -the following letter : — 



"Lord George Bentinck to Mr Croker. 



" Welbeck, near Worksop, Notts, 

 October 5, 1847. 



" My dear Mr Croker, — My services, such as 

 they are, shall always be at the command of any 

 one like yourself who can put the facts which I 

 am able to collect with more force and in a more 

 striking light before the world. 



" Virtually an uneducated man, never intended 

 or attracted by taste for political life, in the House 

 of Commons only by a pure accident, indeed by an 

 inevitable and undesired chance, I am well aware 



