216 THE POST AND THE PADDOCK. 



was left alone with one, and had sucked her dry. 

 Launcelot was also, we believe, very troublesome at 

 first, and The Magnet held out for three seasons, but 

 Tom Dawson still hoped on, and Magnifier was the 

 handsome result. 



Sir Hercules whose children, Brunette, Discount, 

 Lady Langford, and The Trout have been so lucky 

 amid the steeple-chase flags was the last of the 

 Whalebone horses, and there is only one mare of the 

 breed left. The Whisker mares are also reduced to two 

 or three ; and poor old [Catherina, as she stood wasted 

 and " weaving" in her stall at the Burleigh sale, and 

 took the place of honour in the procession of brood- 

 mares round the court-yard, seemed as if she would be 

 only too happy to join Emma in the " Happy Hunting 

 Grounds," instead of being bought in for fifteen gui- 

 neas, and have, like Myrrha, a foal when rising 28. 

 There are also only 1 Lottery, 2 Partisan, 6 Reveller, 

 2 Bowton, 2 Tramp, 2 Glencoe, (one of them Po- 

 cahontas) and 9 Priam mares left, while the Defences 

 number 22, and the Touchstones already reach 96 ! 

 Priam only stood four seasons in England, and had 

 great success withhis fillies, and none with his colts ; 

 whereas Touchstone, whose blood is a union of Whale- 

 bone and Orvile's, generally reverses this order of 

 things, and many of his stock, like Irish Birdcatcher's 

 (who is the sire of about 156 winners), do not train on 

 after their second season. He went through five sea- 

 sons himself, although he was latterly under suspicion 

 for a weak sinew ; but still " the fearful duster" (to use 

 his own fervent words) at which Macdonald sent Luci- 

 fer, in the Ascot Cup, down the hill and half-way up the 

 " Old Mile," wholly failed of its object to find it out. 

 This premier-sire of England is rising twenty-seven, 

 and he has at least that number of his stock at the 

 stud ; but we are inclined to believe that his grand- 

 children, as a lot, will prove a better generation than 

 their sires. None of them have a reputation at all 



