BREEDING OF HUNTERS. 283 



merely put him 'over a few small fences, which he 

 took to the first day ; but as the ground was hard he 

 could not do much with him. Lord Chesterfield 

 looked him over, and thought he could carry him 

 well in another season ; and Mr. Greene, who was 

 then at the commencement of his memorable Quorn 

 mastership, declined him at 120 guineas, on account 

 of his being curby. Within a few days Mr. Payne, 

 of Market Harboro', purchased him as an untried 

 hunter, after a little consideration, for 150, but 

 sold him in less than a fortnight to Mr. Pochin, of 

 Barkby Hall, for 200 guineas. The horse then put 

 out a curb, and Mr. Payne bought him back at 150, 

 and let Mr. Quartermaine have him at 170. He 

 then threw aside his old name of Magnum Bonum, 

 took that of Discount, and entered on public life. 

 It has perhaps never before fallen to the lot of any 

 man to have picked up two horses like Discount and 

 Fire-King, and so close on each other ; and December, 

 whom he sold the same autumn for 200 guineas, to 

 Mr. William Coke, was also a first-rate performer. 

 Discount's triplet of steeple-chases at Liverpool, 

 Worcester, and Coventry, soon caused 1,000 guineas 

 to be refused for him, and he was sold at TattersalFs, 

 where he was put up with three others of Mr. 

 Quartermaine' s, whose sale he would have injured 

 if the private offer had been accepted, for 820 

 guineas to Mr Anderson, who made, it was said, 

 1,100 guineas for him, and the public heard of him 

 no more. The Messrs. Hall, late of Neasdon, got 

 565 guineas for a hunter from a Crimean officer, 

 shortly before he sailed, but its price fell sixty 

 per cent, at least when it was put up for auction a 

 few months afterwards. No such price has, to 

 our knowledge, been given for a hunter for many a 

 long day, and the last seven-hundred-guinea himter 

 within our memory was a bay half-bred Arab, who 

 first changed hands at 30, when his jumping 



