296 



CHAPTER XIY. 



LORD GEORGE AS A TURF REFORMER. 



Lord George Bentinck's name will endure while 

 horse-racing forms the favourite pastime of the 

 British nation, as that of the greatest Turf reformer 

 ever known. By his stringent code of laws, pro- 

 mulgated in 1844, he purged the race-courses of 

 defaulters, established punctuality in starting for 

 each race by fining the clerk of the course 10s. 

 for every minute behind time, and insisted that 

 each horse should be numbered on the card, a cor- 

 responding number being exhibited on the tele- 

 graph frame. He required also that the names 

 of the jockeys should be recorded on the board 

 and card, and that the jockey should be properly 

 dressed in a silk, velvet, or satin jacket, and in 

 boots and breeches, as it was by no means unusual 

 to see jockeys riding in trousers or gaiters, with 

 jackets and caps of the roughest and most grotesque 

 description. The saddling of the horses at a given 

 place, and their walking and cantering before the 



