176 CENTURY OF ENGLISH FOX-HUNTING 



in a remote ingle nook or chimney corner as he was 

 in the mansions of the nobility, in spite of his shy- 

 ness. Perhaps his greatest talent was his capacity 

 for getting humble and unlettered men to bestow 

 their confidence upon him. This was exemplified in 

 the confidence which Dick Christian bestowed upon 

 him. It was at Doncaster also that he first showed 

 his proficiency in horse-lore, and we can imagine him 

 and " Martingale " on the Town Moor. When he 

 had once seen a horse he seldom forgot him, a talent 

 which was of great assistance to him in after life, 

 when he earned his bread, inter alia, by paddock 

 reporting, and won the name of " The Old Mortality 

 of the Turf" Not that his attention was confined to 

 racehorses. Indeed, his predilection was for hunters 

 and hacks, of which subsequently his brother-in-law, 

 Mr. George B. Lynes, was a successful breeder, close 

 to Althorp Park, in Northamptonshire. Mr. Lynes 

 attributed no small portion of the success which 

 attended his breeding efforts to the advice given him 

 by " The Druid." He advised Mr. Lynes to put his 

 first mare to King of Oude, the result being Rural 

 Dean, who was bought by the Prince of Wales, and 

 was considered by the Prince to be the best all-round 

 horse that he ever possessed. Mr. Rarey, when in 

 search of savages, afterwards bought King of Oude, 

 and took him to America, though Mr. Lynes had 

 a standing offer of 200 guineas for every colt or filly 

 by King of Oude out of Rural Dean's dam. I 

 should add that Mr. Lynes subsequently migrated to 



