Echoes of the Hunting Horn 



enter the premises may realise that it has risen, in the 

 strict meaning of the term, from the very ashes of a 

 past history. During and after the first Great War it 

 was used as a quarantine and a Blue Cross Depot for 

 the sick animals of the military authorities. When the 

 Society took it over it was in an appalling condition, 

 and some time afterwards the authorities ordered that 

 all the buildings, stabling, etc., that had been used for 

 hospital purposes must be burnt. Even the railings and 

 boundary fencings ! To complete the wilderness, the 

 scattered coke-breeze that would have saved expenditure 

 on hundreds of tons of gravel, had to be dug up and 

 carted away. It was on this ten acres of desolation that 

 the Society laid the foundations of their present Sale 

 yard. 



In these premises, as we see them to-day, Ireland 

 possesses a Bloodstock Sales Paddock which compares 

 favourably with the most classical and fashionable equine 

 sale yards in the world. Indeed, if comparisons be 

 introduced, Ballsbridge leads in several instances. In 

 few other sale yards is the purchaser provided with 

 such a wealth of data concerning his intended purchase. 

 Not only is the horse's pedigree and performance set 

 down in detail in the catalogue, but the auctioneer 

 actually reads aloud, when the horse comes under his 

 hammer, the opinion offered in the veterinary certificate 

 which accompanies that horse. Although it is clearly 

 understood by purchasers that a veterinary certificate is 

 in no way intended to be a guarantee of soundness, 

 nevertheless a veterinary surgeon has his reputation to 

 uphold, and the opinion of a qualified practitioner gives 



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