BREEDERS AND BREEDING 89 



chance, as was done in the cases of Freemason, 

 Marco, and others, instead of asking an unreason- 

 able sum, and then having to reduce it : examples 

 will occur to the reader if he has paid any 

 attention to the subject ; it is invidious to name 

 them. Many good animals have been sold to go 

 abroad before they have had any real opportunity 

 of showing their merit as sires. I may mention 

 Musket, the sire of Petronel, who got Son of a 

 Gun, an animal with possibilities, who is now in 

 Ireland. Musket was a horse whose stoutness and 

 gallant deeds on the Turf made a profound im- 

 pression upon me, and he was without doubt one 

 of the finest stayers of the last century. When he 

 went to the stud he stood at Bonehill, near 

 Tamworth, having as a companion lord of the 

 harem Pero Gomez. Musket was a dark brown 

 horse, about 16^ hands, and, as near as I can say 

 from memory, not remarkable for very much bone, 

 but with hard, sinewy legs. Pero Gomez was 

 about the same height as Musket, but with more 

 bone, and upright in his pasterns. I had a nice 

 little French-bred mare named Pensee, who had 

 run second to the beautiful-actioned Sornette in a 

 Queen's Plate at Epsom, and I determined to send 

 her to Musket. This was in the year 1875. She 

 had a brown filly foal, a very nice one indeed. 



