1 OLD $OtiN DA Y'S BITTER PILL ' 4$ 



of the writer's assertion as to where he was bought, by 

 showing where he was not bought, I come to answer that 

 of Mr. Gully's ever having had more than a half-share in 

 the horse, and the possibility of his having given my 

 father 100 for the remaining half -share. It is not at all 

 unlikely that my father, like other trainers before and 

 after him, may have been in temporary need of money. 

 But no one can for a moment suppose that he would have 

 done anything so absurd as to have accepted 100 for his 

 half-share of the horse from the ex-pugilist, when, had 

 he felt disposed to part with it at the time, he could 

 readily have got twenty times the amount by offering it 

 to anyone else. But I will go further and show, in 

 the most conclusive manner, how my father became 

 possessed of Pyrrhus the First, and what he gave for 

 him and his dam. 



In 1843 he bought Old England (or, as he was then 

 called, The Fortress Colt) of Colonel Bouverie, of Delapre 

 Abbey, Northamptonshire, for 150, as a yearling ; and 

 liked him so much (probably having had a taste of his 

 merit), that, in the autumn of that year, he went and 

 saw the Colonel again, and asked him what he would take 

 for the colt-foal by Epirus, then by the side of his dam. 

 The answer was : ' John, I will sell you the mare Fortress 

 and foal for 250, if you like to have them ;' and at that 

 price my father bought them, and they went straight to 

 Danebury ; which spot the colt, the future Pyrrhus the 

 First, never left until he was sold after winning the 

 Derby. So I have no need to repeat that the horse was 

 never the sole property of Gully ; and it will be seen that 

 ' the bitter pill,' so genially spoken of as having been 

 taken by ' old John Day,' was never administered ; but 

 instead a sweet antidote in the shape of his retention 

 intact of a share in a valuable animal . So, too, in respect 



