not but notice that the only people we saw drinking spirits were Britons -even in Germany and Holland, supposed to be drinking countries. The difference in this respect between Britain and other countries is more striking than any one could believe without actual observation, and the fact is certainly one which demands serious consideration. The number of persons one meets in England bearing evident marks of intemperate habits shews that it is quite time the subject attracted the attention not only of the philanthropist but the statesman.

The stranger naturally enumerates the things that strike him unpleasantly in Great Britain, because it is impossible to take the opposite course and recount and remark upon the points that claim his admiration. He sees so much to approve-so little, comparatively, to condemn. If a certain coarseness and want of taste strike him painfully, he is none the less impressed with the substantial greatness and excellence which everywhere abound. Perhaps it is because he sees such excellence that he longs to see the outward grace added. He would not exchange the worth of England for the elegance of Italy; he would but add the elegance of Italy to the solid grandeur of England.

It is singular that with such an assured sense of superiority over all other nations as is apparent in the English they should at the same time be so sensitive with regard to the smallest derogation. They call the Americans sensitive, and so they are; but their sensitiveness has at least the apology of youth-of conscious deficiency-and of the most unsparing and contemptuous criticism on the part of their British neighbours. If, on the other hand, they see anything, however unimportant, which may call for animadversion in England, what wrath-what indignation-what severe recrimination falls on their defenceless heads! Speak of the Spitalfields weavers-of the starving thousands that everywhere set off the wealth of England, and how quickly will your remark be rebutted with slavery! Mention the abuses of the Church Establishment, slavery! Game-laws-slavery ! and so on through the whole catalogue of ills under which Englishmen growl and grumble loudly enough when Americans are not by. They pay us at least the compliment of implying that we have but one great evil to contend with, and we are quite willing to acknowledge that one to be a host; but we do not fancy that it ought to blind our eyes or shut our mouths. No nation in the world understands better than the English the application for its own benefit of the parable of the wheat and the tares; and the Americans, though of hastier nature, are learning the lesson too. They will have gotten rid of slavery at least as soon as England has reformed "the family of plagues that waste her vitals" -as one even of her own poets hath said. Meanwhile let each endeavour to learn to bear, now and then, a grain of truth from the other, without bristling, or snapping, or darting out forked venomous lightnings in return. English remarks upon America too often lack the basis of kind intention which takes the offence from severity; American remarks upon England have been too generally recriminative rather than judicious. To find fault without a good motive is mere contemptible venting of spleen and envy; to make careful and discriminating strictures is the proper office of sincere and unselfish friendship. When the English respect us or are willing to own that they respect us, they will be able to do us good; and when we cease to be made angry by their sneers, we may perhaps do them good in return.

57

THE BYE-LANES AND DOWNS OF ENGLAND,

WITH

TURF SCENES AND CHARACTERS.

BY SYLVANUS.

CHAPTER VIII.

Death of Lord George Bentinck. - His personal Appearance. An Incident or two in his Turf Career.-The Bentinck Fund.-The Affair with Captain Kerr. -The Footpath from Welbeck.

THE ink was scarcely dry in which my sketch of Newmarket, and a few of its most prominent frequenters, was penned, when, on taking up a newspaper casually thrown in my way, I was little less than shocked to see the "Death of Lord George Bentinck" announced at the head of the very first page on which I cast my eye.

He, whom but an hour or two ago I had essayed to depict in vigorous manhood, and all the subtle intellect of the accomplished racing-man; whose name, since the manful part he took in political life, has been as familiar to our eyes and ears as our household gods; who but a few hours previously had-in brief relaxation of toil-arrived, as in the "holidays of yore!" at his country home, flushed with pleasure at beholding the produce of his darling mare, Crucifix, perform the great feat of winning both Derby and Leger in his career, was discovered, stricken by the ruthless hand of the destroyer, on a lonely, verdant foot-path!

Having had an intimate knowledge of his late lordship's person and manner, in common with most men who took part in a race during his short but brilliant course on the turf; and having as sincere an admiration for the brave honesty of his political character, his unalloyed purity of intention, and deep attachment for everything rural, sportsmanlike, and true in his native land, I cannot refrain from the melancholy satisfaction of recording my mite of testimony in honour of the late lamented Lord George Bentinck's undeviating, straightforward, unimpeachable character in the great sporting arena whereon he played so conspicuous and gallant a part. I have him vividly before me, and can well recal the impression made upon me by the illustrious turfite when I first cast eye on him some few short years ago at Doncaster; for, having not so much as a "Ruff's Guide" by me, to aid me to my dates,-nor intending any piracy on our calendars,-I take the usual licence with time and space, in contradistinction to the heavy or statistical wielder of the pen, aiming at a sketch at random, and no "return list," in my delineation of turf scenes and characters.

However, when I saw "Lord George"-as he was called, you rarely heard the "Bentinck,"-at the exquisite tryst of sport, of all others-beautiful, glorious Doncaster, previously, or on a subsequent occasion to my introduction at Newmarket,-I really forget, and have little mind to try to remember. He was then a tall, highbred man, in the very prime of life, with an air peculiarly his own,

so distinguished, yet so essentially of the country did he seem, even amongst the galaxy of patrician sportsmen with whom he was congregated. He had all the eye and complexion of the pure Saxon, and the indescribable boon of the air noble to perfection.

His dress at this time greatly added to the charms of his appearance, to my notion; for, though we are told very justly to despise too great attention to these trifles, I cannot, as an humble artist, look upon them as such, when I believe garb to be in great measure typical of the wearer's sympathies, habits, and tendency to manliness or effeminacy. As a portrait painter, too, I am compelled to be more explicit in these minor matters than the mere essayist or historian, and, of course, run the risk of all dealers in minutiæ, as well as being liable to the criticism of the dissentient fopling, and, worse than all, to misconstruction. Conceding all, and more of this —our reversion in contingency, we return to our easel.

Dressed in buckskin breeches-none of your Norway does or West-Riding imitations, but in the hides of his own stags,—with exquisitely made boots of the true orthodox length, and antique colouring in top; a buff waistcoat, and reddish-brown doublebreasted coat, ornamented by the button of the Jockey Club; a quiet beaver, placed neither at a right angle nor yet a left, but in the juste milieu of gentlemanly taste, on a well-formed head of auburn hair, with large whiskers of the same colour; a starting-flag in his hand, and followed by eight-and-twenty race-horses, stepping like a troop of old Franconi's, bearing a tulip-bed aloft-so brilliantly shone the silken jackets of the riders in the sun,-the observed of a hundred thousand eyes, Lord George Bentinck, as steward of the races, undertook to start the immense field for the "Great Yorkshire Handicap," on a plan of his own special invention.

And, I ask the reader, if the tall, handsome man, so yeomanlike and bravely arrayed, for he, too, is of the "order!" noble though he be, marshalling his squadron of fiery yet subdued steeds to the start, is more or less symbolical of manhood and English tastes; more picturesque and worthy of a place in our National Gallery, than if his limbs had been cased in the eternal be-satined, bepaletôted, be-tartaned fashion of our day? or if his Anglo-Saxon features had been surmounted by a shining, silken chapeau?

However, whether or no, Lord George beseemed a gallant gentleman, and as such comported himself in the performance of his duties as steward of the great race meeting, and I only wish from my heart that Landseer had had the opportunity of painting his portrait and occupation, to have handed to posterity as a type of an English country gentleman of this, our present, and not over prolific age.

His lordship's plan for starting horses on a race was as simple as effectual, and was carried out in this wise. In the first place, it needed a starter whom the jocks, instead of daring to disobey, had, as in their feelings towards Lord George, an enthusiastic desire to please; hence he undertook to illustrate his own mode of securing the horses and public from the ever-occurring disappointment of a false start, and, flag in hand, marched in the van of the quivering phalanx, quite unattended, to the starting-place on the noble course of Doncaster, in full view of the tens of thousands regarding him with admiration from the Grand Stand, and every part of the ground.

Hitherto, the functionary who had performed the office of starter, after doing his best, or rather his worst, to get the horses in line, simply ordered the jockeys to "go!" as frequently having to recal them by a distant signal, after they had galloped over three parts of the distance-by reason of some obstinate brute-man or horserefusing to obey the order, and remaining fresh for the next essay. Lord George, rectified this very inefficient plan, by an equestrian trigger of his own invention; viz. the posting a man with a flag directly in view of all the jocks-on whom they were ordered to fix their undivided attention, and to "go!" without fail, on pain of a pecuniary fine-on seeing the colour dropped in front.

The main duty rested with the noble chief in getting the horses in line, a manœuvre he accomplished by great patience, and occasionally walking them backwards and forwards, till assured on his own part of their being so, when he, standing on their flank-unseen by horse or rider-suddenly lowered his flag, in signal to the man a-head to do the same; when, if the jockeys were disposed to act at all fairly—or a horse was not especially restive-a false start was next to impossible.

On this occasion,-how well I remember it!—the immense field bounded off at the first signal-notwithstanding it was Lord George's first essay-like a charge of veteran Mamelukes. The countless throng cheered the gallant starter with deafening shouts of delight and admiration,-and cheered again!-as taking off his hat and bowing in acknowledgment, the handsome fellow mounted his hack and cantered down the course.

Lord Eglinton won with old Pompey, if I remember rightlyimmaterial as the result is now.

And Lord George! how nobly he acted immediately after this most pleasing display of talent and good nature, in the affair of the testimonial presented to him by the unanimous vote of gratitude and esteem on the part of the motley community, over whom he exercised such a wholesome sway.

To the reader unacquainted with the particulars of this single instance of public expression on the turf, it should be known that his Lordship exerted himself most energetically, and at considerable outlay of money and convenience, in his attempt at putting down the gross and wholesale system of fraud and imposture, which at the time prevailed on it, to even a greater amount than at the present day.

He succeeded to an extent beyond his hopes; and received as above hinted at, a magnificent testimonial of several thousand pounds sterling, subscribed by the multifarious members of the ring, country gentlemen, and by all, in fact, who esteemed the ancient and noble pastime equally with the gallant votary doing his devoirs so manfully on its behalf.

I have said that he received this sum; and so he did, but only to endow it with a large donation from his own private fortune—although a younger son-and place the whole in the hands of permanent trustees for the aid and maintenance of distressed jockeys, trainers, and their families,-to be denominated for ever "the Bentinck Fund."

Private tastes leading to such results as these, one would imagine, should have been held sacred from taunt, especially in a congress of

English gentry, debating on matters to which the turf had neither reference nor analogy.

During his short service in the army, Lord George had an unfortunate misunderstanding with his superior, Captain Kerr, a personal friend of the writer, and an extremely gallant little fellow in all respects, which led to the cashiering of the latter, and considerable animadversion on the part. played by the junior, as openly expressed by most military men of the time.

It seems that Kerr imagined Lord George to be equally deficient in his duty as a subaltern, as well as failing in due respect to himself as his senior in command, and said on parade publicly-I give his own words as recorded to myself: "If you do not make this young gentleman behave himself, Colonel, I will."

His Lordship retorted quite as audibly, that "Captain Kerr ventured to say on parade, that which he dared not repeat off."

On this, a challenge ensued from the captain to the cornet. The former, a Yorkshireman and as brave as he was cool-suggested Calais as the place of rendezvous; but on Lord George failing to meet him (most manfully and virtuously as we believe, detesting the vile, nothing-proving, insane code of duelling!), Kerr " posted his Lordship, and received sentence of dismissal from her Majesty's service in consequence.

Poor Kerr stood, as he expressed himself, "between two fires;" being liable to be "sent to Coventry" by the whole army if he hesitated in sending the message-after receiving the retort on parade recorded; and, as it proved, so ruinously to his fortunes, in danger of being cashiered by a court-martial if he.demanded an appeal to arms.

He considered himself, and very justly so, as ill-used, from having suffered so severely through adopting the only course open to a military man, by reason of the mistaken conventional rules of the service, and died not long afterwards in Paris, stricken by the cholera.

If this statement be correct, and I have no reason to doubt its accuracy, Lord George Bentinck, on refusing to meet the man he had unequivocally impugned, if not insulted, in thus making the retort to the other's reproof, given in the course of duty, harshly as it was delivered, should at least have made a decided step towards a reconciliation, and have withdrawn the word "dared" from the offensive expression. He was doubtlessly, as in the majority of such cases, badly advised, and left to regret,-as I feel assured he didthat, which with a true second, might have been so readily repaired. The next time I saw Lord George Bentinck, at least the occasion which left the most vivid impression on my mind after the pleasing episode in his turf career at Doncaster just related, was at Goodwood; where, after duly "wasting" and walking as a regular jock, donning his own gay, so oft victorious, racing-suit, and "weighing," with his saddle on his arm, in true professional style, he rode a match against Lord Maidstone, riding a horse of his own, something by Bay Middleton, when he acquitted himself equally creditably " over the flat," as he had previously done as a starter of the "Great Handicap."

Both of the noble jocks, I remember, were fined a “fiver” each for being late in "going to scale ;" and, it is needless to say, submitted to the wholesome chastisement with the grace and goodhumour becoming their gallantry and breeding.