46 MR. yOHN GULLY 



to Old England, although undoubtedly Gully was pleased 

 to call the horse his own, and to usurp a discreditable 

 control over him which he was not entitled to exercise 

 an attitude of which, I believe, he lived to repent during 

 the whole period of his running my father had a half- 

 share in him. 



I may here relate an interesting incident in connection 

 with the re-sale of Fortress herself. Before leaving 

 Danebury, on his temporary retirement from business, 

 my father sold his horses in training, and mares and 

 foals. The then Mr. Richard Tattersall, father of the 

 late gentleman of that name, was officiating. Before the 

 sale, Lord Caledon wrote to my father to say he wished 

 he would go as far as 2,000 guineas for Fortress for him, 

 he having offered previously that sum for her. This he 

 agreed to do ; but forgot all about it till near the fall of 

 the hammer, before the limit was half reached; when 

 my father, naturally in some haste, made one bid, and 

 bought her. He at once informed Mr. Tattersall that 

 the mare was bought for Lord Caledon. But the great 

 salesman was mightily annoyed. 



' Sir,' he said, in a towering passion, addressing him- 

 self to my father ' sir, it is the first public lie I have 

 ever been made to tell !' referring, we must presume, to 

 the fact that the sale was without reserve ; and assuming, 

 also, that my father had, in this open fashion, put a 

 reserve on the animal. 



I could not then, I cannot now, see the justice of this 

 uncalled-for attack on an employer by a man in his 

 business capacity. The horses, advertised to be sold 

 without reserve, were absolutely sold as advertised. 

 Lord Caledon was but a public purchaser like others. 

 Would the imperious auctioneer demand that he must 

 first consult him? Or why should Lord Caledon not 



