LORD GEORGE BENTINCK. 59 



Chester course. He had put a hard-pulling raking-horse, 

 called Spartacus, into the Hunters' Stakes there, who so 

 overpowered his rider (" I think," said Mr. Smith, himself 

 relating the anecdote, " it was young Buckle ") that he 

 bolted, and was consequently distanced. The squire chal- 

 lenged the winner for £50, owners to ride (Bob Lowth was 

 the adverse jockey), and he won easily each heat. During 

 the time he was a member of the Jockey Club, Lord George 

 Bentinck wrote and asked him to come to Newmarket to 

 support his lordship on some intricate question relating to 

 the turf. This Mr. Smith declined to do, alleging, as an 

 excuse, his having been a member so short a time, and 

 not wishing to identify himself with any discussions rela- 

 tive to racing, in which he did not profess himself an 

 adept. Not loug afterwards Mr. Smith invited his lord- 

 ship to hunt at Tedworth, and, as Lord George had then 

 sold all his hunters, offered to mount him on Election, then 

 perhaps the A 1 of his whole stud. The reply was, " Dear 

 Mr. Smith, — I have always been accustomed to drink out of 

 a large cup, and cannot stoop to a little one. I decline 

 hunting on another man's horse when I have no longer 

 hunters of ray own. Your letter reminds me that you are 

 the only one of my father's old friends who, when solicited, 

 would not support his son in his endeavour to reform the 

 Augean stable," Mr. Smith had forgotten the incident 

 above alluded to, but it had remained altd mente repostum in 

 the breast of his lordship. The anecdote is characteristic of 

 both. Lord George was a frequent visitor at Tedworth, 

 wa3 a gallant rider, and could view a fox (so said the squire) 

 farther than any man living. He once, during a fast run, 

 charged Wilbury Park pales on Wintonian, a racer who had 

 never faced timber before. Fortunately they broke, and 

 the horse made a gap large enough for a flock of sheep to 

 pass through, but his rider escaped a fall. 



