106 LORD GEORGE BENT IN CK. 



colouring matter to resemble mucus, before going to 

 exercise — a perfectly harmless mixture in itself, which 

 could easily be removed on returning to the stable. 

 Then by giving out that she was suffering from in- 

 fluenza, whoever it was that did the trick was enabled 

 effectually to carry out his design. Yet this tem- 

 porary success was afterwards deeply regretted ; for 

 the mare was beat by The Queen of Trumps, and 

 Lord George for once lost a heavy stake over the event, 

 and was therefore possibly one who, on this occasion, 

 afforded the sport of exhibiting the engineer ' hoist 

 with his own petard.' 



Curiously, at the same date Lord George was 

 credited, but I may hope quite unfairly, with the 

 invention of a strangely constructed bridle, having a 

 long porch reaching nearly to the orifice of the gullet, 

 for the purpose of making a horse cough when wearing 

 it. This, in combination with the other stratagem 

 above mentioned, must have had a truly wonderful 

 effect, and have embraced all that was desirable, or 

 that ingenuity could devise, to reduce a healthy 

 animal temporarily to the last stage of the severest 

 cold. I have been told that this instrument in shape 

 closely resembled the bridle known as Lord George's, 

 which is still in use, and is a good one for hard pullers. 

 In fact, it will stop any horse in the least possible 

 time, whether on the racecourse or anywhere else. It 

 was such a bridle that Lord George's hacks generally 

 wore, and sometimes his racehorses. As for the 



