BREEDING FARMS IN THE BERKSHIRES 



lane leading God knows where, but I have no doubt 

 that at the end of it we will find a horse of some 

 description owned by you." 



A summer at Great Harrington in the Berkshires 

 so pleased him that he purchased a tract of land 

 there and converted it into a stock farm. Then he 

 gathered his trotters from the four corners of the 

 land, and all the stalls were quickly filled. He saw 

 Alcantara trot as a four-year-old in Kentucky, and 

 admired him. When this son of George Wilkes and 

 Alma Mater was transferred from Lexington to Lee 

 by Elizur Smith, he paid frequent visits to him, and 

 his admiration for the horse increased. He pur- 

 chased the chestnut colt Leonatus by Alcantara, dam 

 Serene by Nutwood; second dam Silence by Alex- 

 ander's Abdallah, and third dam Woodbine, dam of 

 Woodford Mambrino and Wedgewood, and then 

 buttonholed you and wanted to know how you could 

 beat his blood lines. Leonatus grew into an im- 

 pressive horse of 16 hands, and I often think of an 

 afternoon in the summer of 1895 when Mr. Kerner 

 burst into my office to tell me of the contest in which 

 the six-year-old stallion took a record of 2.17^ in 

 the fifth heat of a winning race. Mr. Kernels eyes 

 blazed as the words dropped rapidly from his lips, 

 and each point was emphasized by a slap on the 

 shoulder or the knee. When he rose to go he trem- 

 bled like a leaf shaken by the wind, and it was evi- 

 dent that the wave of excitement had weakened him. 

 I sat in the box of Colonel Lawrence Kip, at the 



281 



