LORD GEORGE BENTINCK'S RACING CAREER.--QUARREL WITH HIS COUSIN.--DUEL
WITH SQUIRE OSBALDESTON.--"SURPLICE" WINS THE DERBY AND ST.
LEGER.--ATTEMPTS TO POISON THE HORSE.--FRIENDSHIP WITH DISRAELI.--TRAGIC
DEATH


One of the great sensations in the middle of the nineteenth century was
the mysterious death of Lord George Bentinck, who for many years was the
prince of the turf, but who sold his race-horses in order to give more
attention to politics and the spread of Protectionist principles, of
which he was the leading exponent at that time.

Lord George was born in February 1802, the third son of the Farmer Duke;
his elder brother, the Marquis of Titchfield, being that eccentric
personage who succeeded to the Dukedom.

After going through the Eton College course and becoming an officer in
the Lancers and Life Guards, Lord George took the seat vacated by the
Marquis, as M.P. for King's Lynn, in 1826. His life was curiously
intermingled with all sorts and conditions of men. Having the hereditary
instincts of his family he was a keen votary of the turf and daring
early manhood had a partnership with his brother, the Marquis, in the
ownership of race-horses, and it was said that at a later time they were
both enamoured of Miss Annie May Berkeley, who was the cause of a
quarrel between them.

That he was a nobleman of high spirits is evident from the strenuousness
with which he lived his short life.