92 THE RACING WORLD 



On some very poor land that I rented near New- 

 market the water was obtained from the chalk, and 

 here I bred two very fine colts, with great bone. 

 One, a three-year-old now and unbroken, is in my 

 possession. He is an immensely powerful horse, 

 standing about i6*2 on short legs, and with 

 enormous bone. He is by The Deemster out of 

 quite a small mare. Foolscap, by FuUerton. His 

 occupation is to be between the flags, and on this 

 head I may mention an instance to prove that a 

 long and exacting course of steeplechasing does not 

 by any means necessarily destroy a mare's capacity 

 for producing useful young ones. For many years 

 I owned a mare called Orange Blossom, by 

 Honiton out of Confection by Plum Pudding, a 

 long low animal barely I5"2, but one of the gamest 

 of the game. She won many steeplechases carrying 

 very heavy weights. She did not come into my 

 possession until she was twelve years old, was then 

 put to the stud, bred twelve foals in succession, and 

 was shot at the age of twenty-six. I do not think 

 there is another mare with such a record, starting 

 to breed so late in life. All her produce were sound, 

 nearly all won races of some sort ; only one was 

 trained for the flat, viz., Newcourt, who won the 

 Northumberland Plate twice, and was twice sold 

 for j(^2,ooo. Orange Blossom must have possessed 



