118 THE POST AND THE PADDOCK. 



work on straw. This defect, which slumbered for 

 two generations, brought unsound ness into her stock 

 (of which Achmet was perhaps the handsomest) ; and 

 a slight contraction of one of the front feet is observ- 

 able in many of the descendants of Bay Middleton. 

 To see this horse go curling and twisting up to the 

 post, as was his wont, one would have thought him 

 rather weak-built and faint-hearted, whereas he was 

 quite the contrary, and only kept from a great Gold 

 Cup career by his leg infirmity. Lord George Ben- 

 tinck always believed that his last lameness did not 

 result from a break-down in the back sinews, for 

 which he was treated, but from the snapping of a 

 small bone in the foot; and when his limping leg is 

 at last at rest, that question may be put at rest as 

 well. He was a very fine specimen of a cross be- 

 tween Selim and the Phantom blood, which was alike 

 fortunately combined with Partisan's in Glaucus, 

 and with Tramp's in Glencoe. It was equally well 

 suited with Catton's in The Flying Dutchman, and 

 with Paulowitz's in Wild Dayrell ; while Pyrrhus the 

 First and Andover are fine combinations of it with 

 Defence, and tend to make the Defence mares ex- 

 ceedingly valuable. We remember hearing Mr. 

 William Etwall say, that it was from a firm convic- 

 tion that he could not fail to " hit the blood " that 

 he sent his " sister to ^Egis " to Bay Middleton in 

 1850 ; and his idea of its being the proper cross was 

 so much confirmed when he saw Andover as a year- 

 ling, that he sent the mare to him five times running. 

 The late Duke of Grafton was nearly as fond of the 

 smart Reubens' blood as he was of Waxy's ; and in 

 short, as a writer has well expressed it, " every page 

 of the Calendar tends to fix this on the breeder's me- 

 mory that the Waxy blood, crossed with that of 

 Selim, Reubens, and Castrel, invariably runs." 

 Alexander's has always been a very sterling blood, 

 and there has been no finer cross in modern days 



