126 THE PURCHASE OF YEARLIxNGS. 



her as too light, without legs sufficiently strong to carry even 

 so weak a body. He refused to have her, and no doubt 

 there was much truth in his opinion. Yet she was racing like 

 and evenly shaped, and if nothing else she looked Hke going 

 fast ; so my father had to keep her, and afterwards sold a 

 moiety of her to Mr. Gully. This wretched-looking under- 

 sized "weed" that the astute nobleman would have nothing 

 to do with, was Mendicant , the best animal of her year ; the 

 winner of the One Thousand and The Oaks, besides many 

 other races. She was better than Pyrrhns the First, the 

 winner of that year's Derby, of the truth of which assertion 

 there can be no doubt, for they belonged to the same owners 

 and they said so. Here is a remarkable instance of two 

 acknowledged judges disagreeing as to the latent merits of 

 one of the best yearlings in the world ; one being in raptures 

 with her looks and blood, whilst the other disliked one if not 

 both. The sincerity of their declarations on this point was 

 supported by their unwavering faith in their judgment ; the 

 one rejected and the other bought her. 



With this case before us, how can we trust the judgment of 

 any individual } Sweetmeat, I am told, did not fetch iJ'iooas 

 a yearling, and many a noted good one has been sold for half 

 that sum. Venison was so small that the late Lord Lonsdale 

 would not send him to the sale with the rest of his yearlings • 

 and he was afterwards purchased privately by my father, 

 Joe Miller, in the month of July, looked more like a foal than 

 a yearling. Musjid returned to his paddock after having been 

 seen by all the best judges at Doncaster, for the want of a 

 purchaser at 150 guineas ; at which sum the late Sir Joseph 

 Hawley bought him some time afterwards. Glenlivat was 

 bought for 1,000 guineas, a high figure in those days, but he 

 only won once by walking over, after running a dead heat with 



