SALE OF ORMONDE 115 



ment. All the so-called cures are failures. Once a 

 roarer, always a roarer. Let the horse alone ! I 

 have never known a single instance in all my expe- 

 rience of an animal afflicted as Ormonde unhappily 

 was, being either cured or substantially relieved.' 



Ormonde went to the stud at Eaton in November 

 1887, and in his first year he became the sire of 

 Orme and Goldfinch, two first-class horses. He 

 was let to Lord Gerard the second year, but was so 

 ill as to be incapable of service. He was then sold 

 to Captain England, who represented Count Beau- 

 coup in the transaction, for 12,000/. The Count 

 subsequently parted with the horse for 30,000/., for 

 such a purchase an amazing sum of money ! The sale 

 of Ormonde by the Duke of Westminster caused, as 

 Porter remarks, a good deal of talk, but he does not 

 think that any of the commentators on the transac- 

 tion gave the noble owner sufficient credit for the 

 high principles which actuated him in reluctantly 

 permitting himself to relinquish possession. ' The 

 Duke was dead against breeding happy-go-lucky 

 from roarers. If he had kept Ormonde at the stud 

 some of the best mares in England would have been 

 sent to him, with every prospect, judging from 

 common experience, of his offspring spreading the 

 disease.' 



On another view of the subject it is quite an open 

 question with Porter whether a horse afflicted with 

 the disease which unfitted Ormonde for the stud 

 in England can be cured by permanent removal 

 to another climate. Then, the further and more 



1 2 



