i8 "MY KINGDOM FOR A HORSE ! " 



roared and kicked in such frenzy at having been touched 

 that the memory of him has always been a vivid one in my 

 mind, though I was only six years old at the time. The 

 Stebbing who made the ridiculous remark quoted above 

 was a big, stout man, and it probably was William, as he 

 appears in the Calendar as the owner of Vatican. William 

 Day, in one of his books, states that the Stebbing brothers 

 were anything but practical horsemen, and it may well 

 have been so, for never in present times is a horse so mis- 

 managed as to become such a savage as Vatican then was. 

 They had actually gone to the length of having him 

 blinded by a vet. from Thirsk : but so absolutely did he 

 establish his reign of terror that they destroyed him in 

 1859. Why we were on Hambleton to see him I do not 

 know, but inasmuch as the very last of Vatican's foals was 

 one bred by Mr Arrowsmith out of a mare called Pessima 

 (G. S. B., vol. ix.) and foaled in 1860, the same mare 

 having had foals by Vatican in 1857 and 1858, it is safe to 

 infer that her owner was instrumental in taking us all 

 there to see the horse. 



I can fix the approximate date of the visit, for I have 

 come across a letter from Mr Simpson to my father, dated 

 4th July 1857, in which there is the following : 



Mrs Simpson unites with me in very kind regards to Mrs Allison, 

 yourself and the children, and in the hope soon to avail ourselves 

 of your kind invitation for us to visit you. 



Believe me, my dear sir, ever, yours sincerely, 



THOMAS SIMPSON. 



Vatican was foaled in 1846, and he was among the best 

 of his year. Moreover, he raced until he was six years 

 old, with considerable success. Such as he was, however, 

 when I saw him, he represents my first abiding memory of 

 a thoroughbred horse, and might perhaps be regarded as a 

 deterrent. 



But I used always to be in a carriage with my mother 

 at Thirsk Races, and see George Thompson, Tom Spence 

 and other notables ride for the Hunt Cup and the Silver Cup. 

 Vatican and the horror of him served but as an episode. 



