CAPT. Johnstone's hounds and country. 237 



able horseman, and at his establishment at West 

 Ayton, there is always a goodly number of high 

 class hunters to be found. In the showy ard he is 

 generally to be found either as an exhibitor or as 

 a judge, and occasionally his colours, blue with 

 white star, are to be seen in the van at local 

 steeplechase meetings. He frequently used to buy 

 a lot of horses from Paddy Shiel, the genial 

 Dublin dealer ; but latterly he has not 

 frequented fairs so much and picks his horses up 

 at the various shows or in the hunting field 

 whenever he sees a promising younster in the 

 breeder's hands. Perhaps the best horse he ever 

 bought of Paddy Shiel was Snapdragon, a 

 beautiful qualitied horse with fine action. He 

 was very successful in the show yard, his most 

 notable victories being at Manchester and at the 

 Poyal at Bristol, a show where Yorkshire made 

 a big mark. He was ultimately sold for £350, 

 and was cheap at the money. In those days Mr. 

 Shiel used to bring over forty to fifty likely 

 looking three-year-olds to Howden Fair. Mr. 

 Darrell generally used to buy five or six or some- 

 times more out of the lot, and Snapdragon was 

 bought in this way. 



On one occasion the bargain was a somewhat 

 hard one, for like all Irish dealers Mr. Shiel is 

 somewhat tenacious, especially when he thinks 

 he has a good one. In the course of the con- 

 versation Mr. Darrell happened to say that the 



