He had
become the Lord Paramount of that strange world, so difficult to sway,
and which requires, for its government, both a stern resolve and a
courtly breeding. He had them both; and though the black-leg might quail
before the awful scrutiny of his piercing eye, there never was a man so
scrupulously polite to his inferiors as Lord George Bentinck. The turf,
too, was not merely the scene of the triumphs of his stud and his
betting-book. He had purified its practice and had elevated its
character, and he was prouder of this achievement than of any other
connected with his sporting life. Notwithstanding his mighty stakes,
and the keenness with which he backed his opinion, no one perhaps ever
cared less for money. His habits were severely simple, and he was the
most generous of men. He valued the acquisition of money on the turf,
because there it was the test of success. He counted his thousands after
a great race, as a victorious general counts his cannon and his
prisoners."
Up to the time that he developed a new interest in politics, his great
ambition in life had been for one of his horses to win the Derby.
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