THE GREAT ARMADA AND THE CONTRE COUP 25 



roll of names in order to have the glories of the blue and white banner of 

 Kirkham brought vividly to your mind. Chester, Martini Henry, Nordenfeldt, 

 Trident, Ensign, Dreadnought, Palmyra, Segenhoe, lolanthe, Acme, Sapphire, 

 Uralla, Cranbrook, Bargo, Volley, Spice, Titan, Carlyon, Morpeth, Matchlock, 

 Abercorn, Volley, Victor Hugo, Rudolph, Singapore and Democrat. After 

 his death, which came all too soon, so long as his own blood remained unsullied 

 by other hands, the stock which he left behind him continued to win great 

 events. But Fennelly, his first trainer, died before his time; Tom Hales, his 

 great rider, did not long survive his master; but Tom Pay ten, who succeeded 

 Fennelly, only went West during the last twelve months. 



Mr. White stuck to the old Sir Hercules blood and Fisherman as long as 

 he lived, although he was wise enough also to come in on the flood when the 

 strain of Musket first began to make its appearance; and he was such an 

 exceedingly acute judge that he always took advantage of any other lines that 

 he believed would suit his individual mares. Chester was a Yattendon (Sir 

 Hercules). Mr. White bred from him Dreadnought, Abercorn, Cranbrook, 

 Carlyon, Uralla, Titan, Acme, Victor Hugo and Spice. From Fisherman 

 (Maribyrnong) came Palmyra, Segenhoe, Bargo, lolanthe, and Trident was 

 from the same horse through Robinson Crusoe and Angler. Ensign (Derby) 

 was by Grandmaster, a son of Gladiateur; Democrat was a Gemma di Vergy, 

 Sapphire a Drummer, and the remainder of White's famous winners were all 

 from Musket or his sons, and included Martini Henry, Nordenfeldt, Volley, 

 Matchlock, Rudolph, Singapore, whilst Morpeth was his single well-known 

 winner by Goldsbrough. 



Chapter X. 



The Great Armada and the Contre Coup. 



When the Hon. James White was at the zenith of his racing fortunes, he 

 conceived the noble ambition to bring the English Derby to Australia, and 

 accordingly bred from several of his best mares to English time. It was a 

 great adventure. La Princess, a mare by Cathedral from Princess of Wales, 

 by Stockwell, produced for him a chestnut colt to Chester, appropriately named 

 Kirkham. Chester himself was from a Stockw^ell mare, and the cross was 

 therefore a strong one. From La Princess he also bred Martindale, by Martini 

 Henry, in the following year. Gn the same blood lines he bred the chestnut 

 colt Narellan, by Chester from Princess Maud, by Adventurer out of Princess 

 of Wales, by Stockwell, as well as a full brother to Dreadnought, by Chester 

 out of Trafalgar, by Blair Athol from a sister to Musket, which was christened 

 Wentworth; and the last, a full sister to Singapore, by Martini Henry out of 

 Malacca, by King of the Forest from Catinka, by Paul Jones, named Mons 

 Meg. This little string was duly despatched to the Old Country and placed 

 under the care of the greatest trainer in England, old Mathew Dawson. But 

 the invading expedition was not a success. The colts seemed to lose their 

 action on the voyage; or it might have been that virtue had gone out of La 

 Princess and Princess Maud after their several successive matings with Chester, 

 and it had not yet come home to Mr. White that Martini Henry was doomed 

 to be a comparative failure at the stud. Possibly the line of Whisker, from 

 which Chester sprang, and which had practically died out in England, was 

 simply not good enough to hold its own with the descendants of Whalebone, 



