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Gregory, who was Sir William's second wife, became at once a great favourite in London society, and her little salon at 3 St George's Place, Hyde Park Corner, soon became one of the most agreeable in London. During the concluding years of his life, offers from diverse constituencies, both English and Irish, poured in upon Sir William, but in vain. He was equally deaf to overtures made to him by Secretaries for the Colonies that he would accept another Governorship. Fond of society, an admirable diner-out, and blessed with an Irishman's high spirits, Sir William's declining years were undoubtedly the happiest that he ever passed. In 1884 he revisited Ceylon, accompanied by Lady Gregory, and the crowning honour of his life was the erection of the statue, from Sir Edgar Boehm's hand, to which I have above alluded. "Life to the last enjoyed," with memory, hearing, and eyesight unimpaired, full of years and honours, Sir William went to his well-earned rest without leaving an enemy behind him. During his last two winters, the cold of London tried him severely, and it was his intention to escape to a warmer climate, when death overtook him. The last letter that I ever received from him was couched in the following pathetic terms:

"3 ST GEORGE'S PLACE,

HYDE PARK CORNER, S. W., 14th Feb. 1892.

"I have to thank you for your review of Lord Rosebery's 'Pitt,' which is a fine biography, and

the style admirable. There are phrases and touches in it which are quite sui generis, and which send you on your way rejoicing. Among others, there is one which you notice and which struck me much: The instinct of self-preservation guides the European Powers with the same certainty as weather moves sheep on the hill.' Another remarkable expression is, 'Buckingham was his brother Grenville's hair-shirt.'

"On the whole, despite the delightful style, it is one of the saddest books I ever read. It is the struggle of the most noble-minded patriotic Englishman that ever lived to establish a wise fiscal policy, to abandon the old insane foreign entanglements, to pacify Ireland by wise and feasible measures, which would have rendered her a glory to England and no longer a shame to humanity. In all these aims he was arrested, thwarted, and beaten back by the powers of evil. You should not have concluded your critique without quoting Rosebery's noble final sentence: From the dead eighteenth century Pitt's figure still faces us with a majesty of loneliness and courage. There may have been men abler and greater than he-though it is not easy to cite them. But in all history there is no more patriotic spirit, none more intrepid, none more pure.'

"I am as ill as a man can well be. I went to Bournemouth for ten days, but came back much as I went. The doctors are quite au bout de

leur latin'; but one of them says there is a chance of heat bringing me round. We start, therefore, on Thursday next at 3 P.M., and arrive at Marseilles next day at 2.30. Is not that wonderful? I remember travelling five days and nights from Marseilles to Paris, to be present at Coronation's Derby. Yours ever sincerely,

"W. H. GREGORY."

That journey to Marseilles he was not permitted to make. At the close of February and during the opening days of March the cold became daily more intense, and told with fatal severity upon his enfeebled frame. For many days before his death he lay unconscious of the tender solicitude lavished upon him by his devoted wife, who never left his bedside by night or day. Upon Sunday, March 6, 1892, the end came. No man ever retrieved more honourably the errors of his youth; and to him more than to any other man of my acquaintance might be applied the well-known French proverb, "On ne revient pas de si loin pour peu de chose."

CHAPTER XIX.

POLITICAL CAREER OF LORD GEORGE BENTINCK.

ALTHOUGH it was my original intention to confine myself in these pages solely to the "Racing Life of Lord George Bentinck," I cannot, with justice to him or to myself, omit to point out that his political career was very closely associated with, and in some sense sprang out of, his love for the Turf. There can be little doubt that he was warmly encouraged by his intimate friend, the Right Honourable Benjamin Disraeli, to take a more active part in politics than he had ever attempted between 1826, when he first entered the House of Commons, and 1846, when Sir Robert Peel, then the acknowledged head of the Conservative party, rent it in twain by abolishing the import duty upon foreign corn. It is evident, from Lord George's letter to Mr Croker, from which I have already quoted, that he would never have given himself up body and soul to politics if it had not been his rooted and conscientious conviction that the Conservative

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party, of which he had long been a silent member, was being misguided and wrecked by the "man at the helm,”—the great statesman who had until then been its most trusted pilot. To this conviction he was mainly brought by the influence and arguments of Mr Disraeli, who well knew Lord George's character, and appraised his abilities more accurately than any other member of Parliament did. I shall always think that Mr Disraeli allowed himself, as early as the year 1842, to appear to be drawn by Lord George into the vortex of racing, with a view to drawing Lord George, when the right moment came, into the vortex of politics.

In 1842 Lord George owned a very highly bred filly called Kitten, who was the daughter of Bay Middleton, winner of the Derby, and of Pussy, winner of the Oaks. Lord George insisted that in this filly Mr Disraeli should take an interest, by accepting a half share in her, of which I have no doubt that his Lordship made him a present. Kitten was engaged in several two-year-old and three-year-old stakes, but unfortunately she was,

like

many of the Bay Middletons, very light in the fore-legs, and was therefore unable to stand training even to the extent of being prepared for a twoyear-old stake over a half-mile course. Worthless as she was, she afforded Mr Disraeli an opportunity to call more frequently upon Lord George, although I do not believe that the former ever took any genuine interest in horses or in racing. About