BLOOD MARES. 225 



while Van Tromp brought 300 guineas in his foalhood, 

 and Zuyder Zee 1000 guineas in his yearling days. 

 Such high prices for yearlings were, however, far 

 from being as general as they are now, and bidders 

 not unfrequently adopted the plan of not opposing 

 each other, but of ' ' tossing up " or " knocking out " 

 afterwards. If our memory serves us, The Kedger 

 and Weatherbit were bought on this principle, Lord 

 George Bentinck losing the toss for both of them. 

 Shortly before this, when Muley reigned supreme at 

 Underley, sixteen of his yearlings plodded their 

 weary way over the Yorkshire Moors by Skipton to 

 Doncaster; but Mr. Nowell and the grooms came 

 back rejoicing to the quaker-haunted Westmoreland 

 with the astounding news that the lot had averaged 

 331 guineas a-piece ! Snowstorm, a son of Rebecca' s, 

 gave the late Mr. A. Johnstone a foretaste of his stud 

 success by realizing 710 guineas, and he also made 

 500 guineas at the same lucky spot, in front of "The 

 Salutation," both with a Morsel colt and Johnny 

 Armstrong, who died before he could publicly prove 

 the truth of a very high trial. General Anson had 

 also good prices for many years, and the average of 

 his eight, including Hernandez, in 1849, was 344 

 guineas. Prices were very quiet in 1853, when 

 Cavalier (520 guineas) was the premier; but the 

 honour of being the Anni Mirabiles of the stud was 

 reserved for 1854-55. The whole fourteen Royal 

 yearlings, in the first of these years, averaged 441 

 guineas, six of the colts making 611 guineas, and a 

 like number of the fillies 406 guineas. This one- 

 thousand-guinea " Yellow Jack" epidemic soon 

 spread: The Salutation, true to itself, heard Mr. 

 TattersalFs hammer fall that autumn to 1,020 guineas 

 for Voivode, and before another year had flown we 

 heard of two, if not three more 1,000 guineas private 

 sales, two of 1,200, and another of 1,500 guineas. 

 Last autumn, year, Mr. A. Johnstone averaged 311 



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