208 The Post and the Paddock. 



away as a foal for dead, and revived on a warm dung- 

 heap ; how Wanderer spent his life in carrying his 

 litter out of his box into the yard, and never let any 

 one catch his eye or see him lie down from the time 

 he was put out of training ; and how in the spring of 

 1825 nearly every brood mare and sympathetic she- 

 ass on the Petworth estate cast full-grown dead foals 

 from no apparent cause. Generations of Barnums 

 might have made their market by watching stud- 

 farms alone. The curiosities of breeding experience 

 are, in fact, endless. Two foals are registered as 

 having had five legs apiece ; an Orvile mare, after 

 going thirty-seven days beyond her time, gave birth 

 to one with no feet ; and her half-sister, not to be out- 

 done, had another, shortly after, with no eyes. Lord 

 George Bentinck was very fond of breeding experi- 

 ments. Monstrosity produced such a good foal in 

 Ugly Buck, when she was only three, that he deter- 

 mined to steal another year, and sent Experiment to 

 Venison when she was just eleven months old, but her 

 colt barely lived twenty-four hours. The dam of 

 Montreal was the most remarkable prodigy that ever 

 passed through his hands, as she was in foal only 

 three times in 1842-47, and threw twins each time. 

 In many instances mares have had twins their first 

 season ; but as a general rule it is hardly possible to 

 rear one, much less both. The nurture of Tweedle- 

 dee-dum and Tweedle-dee-dee was a strong instance 

 to the contrary ; and the strangeness of the " diffe- 

 rence" between them consisted in the superior thriving 

 of the one which was reared, like little Milksop, upon 

 cow's milk. Occasionally a twin is put in training ; 

 but King Pepin is the only one, of late years, which 

 has shown any form. Cedric, the Derby winner, may 

 also be mentioned as a singular instance of a horse 

 who never got a foal ; and we remember one of less 

 note which, season after season, refused to notice a 

 mare, till he was left alone with one and had sucked 



