344 " MY KINGDOM FOR A HORSE ! " 



for their dam, Quiver, was nearly own sister to Musket. 

 I wrote a great deal on this, and I will not say propter 

 hoc, but certainly post hoc the Duke of Portland bought 

 Musket's great son, Carbine, and brought him to England, 

 where he ended his days at the Welbeck stud, after siring 

 Spearmint and other good winners. 



A little later I was fortunate enough to secure Bill 

 of Portland for the late Mr W. R. Wilson, of the St 

 Alban's stud, Victoria, and this son of St Simon got the 

 best colt of his year in his first three successive seasons 

 out there, all being from mares of Musket blood. There 

 can really be no question about the efficacy of this com- 

 bination, and later on I was lucky enough to get the really 

 greatest Musket stallion to Cobham. That was Trenton, 

 and his influence for the good of our bloodstock will 

 remain as long as the general stud-book lasts, manifest 

 as it already is through Torpoint, Rosedrop and 

 Gainsborough. 



It will always be a satisfaction to me that I got Mr 

 Edmund Tattersall to come and sell once more at Cobham 

 in 1895 though we had nothing very good to offer and 

 Mr Herbert Rymill was also there at the luncheon. I 

 tried for many years to keep those sales going and some- 

 tunes they were very fairly successful. I still believe 

 that such sales are the best ; but there must be a lot of 

 fashion in them to draw the buyers, and that means a lot 

 of capital. Otherwise you only draw the free-lunchers. 



I am scurrying on to the finish of this last chapter, but 

 must not miss the institution of the old Sporting League, 

 which through the medium of The Sportsman was entirely 

 my own doing, and for a good many years it exercised 

 real political influence, thanks mainly to the unceasing 

 energy of Mr James Lowther and of Lord Durham, 

 both of whom were on the Executive, together with Lord 

 Coventry, Lord Hawke, the Duke of Richmond and 

 Gordon, Lord Lonsdale, Guy Nickalls and others. It was 

 a very powerful organisation indeed, and Mr Lowther 

 in particular addressed meetings at all the important 



