BLOOD SIRES. 199 



finer-looking animal of the two. Whalebone was 

 much smaller, and not so good looking as either of 

 them ; barely fifteen two, and bordering, in colour, 

 on a brown ; and Woful was thought by many to be 

 a still handsomer horse than Whisker, but his legs 

 failed wofully in his preparations. 



Bay Middleton, Touchstone, and Melbourne, one 

 from each of the great branches of the genealogical 

 stud tree, are in the first class of turf patriarchs, 

 although they are gradually giving way before 

 younger rivals. Venison ranked amongst them ; but 

 his last lot of foals ran last season, and Kingston, the 

 handsomest of his sons, and out of a Slane mare, is still 

 untried. Irish Birdcatcher's stock are somewhat short 

 and very speedy, and the stouter and less curby blood 

 of The Baron, which got a double stain of Waxy 

 through his Economist dam, has brought out this 

 chesnut family in still greater force, by its cross with 

 Pocahontas by Glencoe, which made both Tramp and 

 Muley kinsmen to Stockwell and Eataplan. To these 

 two, seeing that the handsome Chief Baron Nicholson 

 has departed, the honour of this blood will have to be 

 confided ; as even 3,000 guineas, or nearly twice the 

 sum paid for him, has failed to tempt our allies to 

 send us The Baron back. Still we are informed by 

 gentleman, who visited him not very long since, at 

 the Bois du Haras, that he was as rough and as un- 

 cared for as a bear, and that seeing how dirty and 

 below par the whole establishment was, it was no 

 wonder the young stock turned out ill. With the 

 exception of Safeguard, who is out of a Selim mare, 

 we believe that there is hardly a Defence horse left in 

 England ; and we have no worthy inheritor of the 

 stag-like neck, long back ribs, and broad back, which 

 Mr. Thornhill used to point out with such pride 

 whenever he introduced his Biddlesworth visitors to 

 Emilius. If Mr. Houldsworth, of whom it used to be 

 said " that he could never lose over horses what he 



