180 SAM DARLING'S EEMINISCENCES 



groom in attendance. He took a great interest 

 Prince in the horses. Many times he asked 

 ^PerMan'^ me their names as they cantered by. 

 cats I felt very highly honoured when 

 H.R.H. made me a present of some of his cele- 

 brated breed of Persian cats, which remained at 

 Beckhampton for some considerable time, until 

 they took to poaching, and I believe the keepers 

 eventually shot them. 



Within the last few years Lord Ilchester has had 

 several horses in training with me, most of them 

 Lord winners I am very pleased to say. The 

 Ilchester £j.g^ jjopge I sold to Lord Ilchester was 

 Jack Snipe. I bought him from James Daly in 

 Ireland, and he at the time was certainly an awful 

 " skin " to look at, but he had the make and shape 

 of a race-horse ; and when he cantered in the 

 paddock at Mr. Daly's stud farm outside Dublin, 

 I felt sure we could add strength to that action 

 and get a good colt. There is a story of another 

 trainer following close after, who came upon Jack 

 Snipe in the paddock, and said : 



*' There's one who will never win a race." 



" Well," said James Daly, " Sam DarHng's just 



given £500 for him." He then began to wonder 



if he had not been too hasty in his condemnation. 



When I was staying with Lord Ilchester at 



Melbury at that time he asked me to buy him a 



