LINES OF BLOOD 303 



blood may survive in the stock of the present Lord Durham's 

 Peter Flower, who unfortunately died after a very short stud 

 career. 



Hampton was never a big horse, and as I remember him 

 in his running days, stood about 15 h. 3 in. high. He 

 was a whole-coloured bay with black points, very level, 

 and for his size he stood over a lot of ground. He was 

 on rather short legs and had immensely powerful quarters, 

 which quarters seem to me to have been most faithfully 

 reproduced in his son Sheen. Without being of the com- 

 manding type, he still looked a high-class racehorse, and his 

 racecourse manners were perfect, a remark which applies in a 

 considerable degree to nearly all the members of the family. 



At the stud Hampton had to fight an uphill battle at first 

 because of the prejudice which then existed, and still exists 

 in some degree, against breeding from horses who have been 

 chiefly known as " handicappers," and who never measured 

 their strength against the best two- and three-year-old form 

 of their day. It is often thought, too, when an ex-selling 

 plater develops unexpected form and carries off important 

 handicaps, that he is a chance horse, and such horses are 

 generally neglected by breeders. Hampton, however, had 

 the luck to be owned by a man who knew his value, and was 

 able to give him the chance of making himself. Of this the 

 horse availed himself so quickly that the prejudice was soon 

 overcome, and for the last twenty years there has hardly 

 been a more successful sire in the kingdom. At present it is 

 perhaps too soon to decide whether his colts or his fillies 

 have done most towards handing down his name, but a large 

 measure of success has attended all the best of Hampton's 

 stock, both on the racecourse and at the stud ; and whilst he 

 has given us three winners of the Derby — Merry Hampton, 

 Ayrshire, and Ladas — it must be added that Persimmon is 

 out of a Hampton mare. That Merry Hampton was the 

 worst and Ladas the best of Hampton's three Derby winners 

 is the general opinion. Ayrshire is fast making a name at the 

 stud, but Merry Hampton has done little to perpetuate the 

 line. It is early yet to write of Ladas from the paddock point 

 of view, for his progeny have not won much so far, but Lord 



