BLOOD MARES. 227 



and Virago were also "raised" there. Prices of 

 sires are wonderfully variable, and if they are put up 

 at TattersalPs in a dull time, they often make next 

 to nothing. Coningsby and Tadmor, if we remem- 

 ber rightly, had to be bought in at 50 guineas, and 

 not a soul would open his mouth to bid for Touch- 

 stone's own brother, Launcelot. However, Mr. A. 

 Johnstorie made a hundred- guinea bid the next 

 Monday, and got him. Old England on the con- 

 trary, was bought in on one Monday for 580 guineas, 

 and sent again in the course of a month, when he 

 had no bid beyond 300 guineas ; and a Dutchman 

 yearling, one summer, fetched only 14 guineas at the 

 Bawcliffe Paddock sale, and 74 guineas at TattersalFs 

 about two months after. So much for the fickleness 

 of purchasers ! Brother to Ban is the most painfully 

 deformed object we ever saw at The Corner, and a 

 couple of Auckland foals, which squeaked like suck- 

 ing pigs when they were separated, after realizing 

 about four guineas each, the most shaggy and starved. 

 Their sire had a most wonderful escape from being 

 scalded to death, as a yearling, on the North West- 

 ern, which compromised his burns and the death of 

 his companion filly for, as it was said at the time, 

 3,000 guineas, in consequence of their heavy forfeits. 

 The Marquis of Exeter has often had forty brood 

 mares in his paddocks at Burleigh, and has perhaps 

 bred more foals annually, with the exception of Sir 

 Tatton Sykes, than any other man. His fondness 

 for the blood of Sultan has been quite as great as 

 that of the veteran Yorkshire baronet's for Comus ; 

 but of late years, although the Beirams have run 

 stoutly, both have proved a somewhat unthrift love. 

 The stud at Sledmere has numbered about two hun- 

 dred, taking one kind of blood-stock with another, 

 and not unfrequently returns about five-and-forty 

 foals to the Messrs. Weatherby. Messrs. Stebbing 

 and Morris have about thirty-six mares, and Lord 



Q 2 



