THE MUSKET BLOOD 343 



stantial start of the International Horse Agency and 

 Exchange Limited, which has never looked back since. 



Within that year Mr Schwabe, who had bred Buccaneer, 

 and was dissatisfied because another of the sort was not 

 immediately forthcoming, wanted to clear out of Cobham, 

 and old Shipley, his stud groom, suggested to me that I 

 should take the stud. This seemed a big adventure, but 

 Mr Schwabe was willing to leave his twelve mares at 

 regulation tariff, and that would go far to pay the rent 

 for we had not nearly all the land at that time. Nor 

 did Mr Schwabe want anything to speak of for fixtures 

 or unexhausted improvements. Thus it was that I found 

 myself, after long years, the sole lessee of the place which 

 100,000 share capital and 40,000 debentures had not 

 sufficed to carry on. 



The International Horse Agency and Exchange was now 

 definitely established at 4&A Pall Mall, with R. P. (now 

 Major) Mortlock as secretary, and an agreement was made 

 at the request of M. Halbronn, of the Etablissement Cheri, 

 under which English brood mares were taken annually 

 to Deauville sales and to Paris, in limited numbers, and 

 each individual chosen by me. This was both profitable 

 and interesting, and many of these mares produced great 

 winners in France, such as La Camargo, Perth II., Masque, 

 etc. 



As regards all this, however, my life is an open book 

 to anyone who has read The Sportsman for the last quarter 

 of a century. At any rate, I cannot do more than skim 

 over it here. 



I had a rooted belief in Musket after seeing him win 

 at Warwick, and the first Cesarewitch I had to deal with 

 in The Sportsman was that of 1891, for which Ragimunde 

 (grandson of Musket) was my choice. Then after the 

 great Badminton sale, when Musket's son, old Petronel, 

 was alone retained, I got the late Duke of Beaufort to let 

 me have him to stand at Cobham. 



Meanwhile Memoir and La Fleche had pointed clearly 

 to the prospects of the St Simon and Musket combination, 



