CHAPTER XIII 



FOREIGN BUYERS 



Count Lehndorff the Very Best Transactions with him Kirkconnel 

 and Sir Blundell Maple How he paid the Commission Strange 

 Trickery in Foreign Dealings Amazing Sales of Dunure and 

 Bona Vista Mr Zveguintzoff the best of Foreign Buyers Mr Leon 

 Mantascheff still a Power in the Land Count Ivan Szapary Mrs 

 Langtry and Aurum Cheri Halbronn Memories of French Sales 

 of English Blood Stock Great Results and Sad Sequels Hopes 

 for Good Days to come 



OF all the foreign buyers whom I have known, 

 Count Lehndorff was the most notable and 

 most knowledgable. He was a practical 

 horseman to his finger-tips, and he was a true gentleman, 

 which could not be said of any large number of his 

 fellow-countrymen, from the Kaiser downwards. I had 

 many transactions with Count Lehndorff, besides the 

 sale of Ard Patrick, and one, scarcely less important, 

 was the sale of Carnage, three parts brother (by Norden- 

 feldt) to Carbine. At that time Count Lehndorff had 

 realised the necessity of fresh blood in Europe and, in 

 a book which he wrote, suggested importations from 

 America, but he had no idea then that The American 

 Stud Book did not tally with the English at all points, 

 like the German and all other Continental books. 

 When he ascertained the truth about The American 

 Stud Book, he turned at once to Australasia, and that 

 was the reason why he came to try and buy Carnage, 

 whom we then had at Cobham. Carnage was the 

 '35 



