226 THE POST AND THE PADDOCK. 



guineas a-piece for his fifteen yearlings ; but the 

 average was unduly swelled by the sale of Lord of 

 the Hills, who ran the gamut from 200 guineas to 

 1,800 guineas, by a succession of rapid 50-guinea bids. 

 Four commissioners were at work, one of whom left 

 off at 800 guineas; while a Newmarket trainer, who 

 had come with a commission to that amount in his 

 pocket, never got a bid at all. It was the general 

 impression that Mr. Crauford had as little intention 

 of being beaten for this luckless colt, as he had when he 

 was wont to send on The Shaver to a favourite meet 

 with the Quorn. The Royal Stud has averaged about 

 220 guineas for its fifty-three yearlings in 1851-55, 

 and 160 guineas in 1856; but still if breeders could 

 calculate on 100 guineas a-piece for every blood 

 yearling they bring to the hammer, they would not 

 do far amiss ; whereas the average of yearling prices, 

 at public sales, in 1854, was 136J guineas, and 120 

 guineas for 1854-56. The largest and most furnished 

 yearling within modern trainers' memory, is Hunting 

 Horn, who, but for his mouth, might have been any 

 age to look at ; he was sold at that age for 570 guineas, 

 and his owner, who lives at Doncaster, and only keeps 

 two mares, has averaged 428 guineas for three of his 

 yearlings, since the autumn of 1849 : Fortune has, 

 however, squared matters with him, as both his 1856 

 foals died. Cyprian has also proved a golden mine 

 to John Scott, with whom she may well be such a 

 favourite, as his average is far beyond Mr. Sadler's, 

 and for twice the number to boot. The Streatlam 

 Paddocks are, after all, the El Dorado of blood stock. 

 Besides "The West," they have sent Mundig, 

 Cotherstone, Daniel O'Rourke, Hetman Platoff, 

 Epirus, Springy Jack, and Fly-by-night to Whitewall, 

 in little more than twenty years. Durham has, how- 

 ever, always been as renowned for thorough-breds as 

 for short-horns. For nearly forty years Lord Dar- 

 lington bred his best winners at E/aby, and Voltigeur 



