A BEACON TO BE FOLLOWED. 463 



for the imitation and guidance of the present and 

 succeeding generations. In such a life consists the 

 great secret of true happiness ; for in it is found the 

 only pleasure that none can take away. To have the 

 opportunity of writing in such a strain, weak though 

 it be, falls to the lot of few, and to still fewer to have 

 been blest with the privilege of knowing intimately a 

 man of such an exemplary character; and with this 

 poor tribute to his memory I may well bring my 

 reminiscences to a close. 



A last word may be expected from me in reference 

 to some of the characters who have figured in these 

 pages. Of that illustrious nobleman of world-wide 

 fame, Lord George Bentinck, I have written in a 

 strain different to that generally adopted by historians 

 of the turf, who have been accustomed to speak of 

 him euphemistically, simply because their knowledge 

 of him was restricted to a few of the ostentatious 

 actions which emanated from his love of appearing 

 superlative in the eyes of the world. It may be 

 thought I have written harshly ; but I can only say 

 that I have put great and constant restraint on my 

 pen, in order to set forth no fact for which I have not 

 the fullest authority, and to prevent the expression of 

 my personal feeling with regard to an individual 

 action — lest I should be thought prejudiced — and so 

 leave the reader to form his own opinion from the 

 bare recital of what reallv occurred. Yet when we 



