igo MEMORIES OF MEN AND HORSES 



buy her, and he did so in all good faith, but he had to 

 bid 12,600 guineas for the mare alone. The result was 

 that the good old gentleman at first repudiated the 

 transaction, and went away to France to avoid being 

 worried about it ; but wiser counsels prevailed, and he 

 accepted the position, nor had he ever any reason to 

 regret the purchase, though the best of her stock, such 

 as John o' Gaunt and Baroness La Fleche, had bad 

 luck on the turf. From both of these classic winners 

 have already descended, with every prospect of more 

 to follow. 



Sceptre even at 10,000 guineas as a yearling was 

 well worth the money. The late Duke of Westminster 

 never failed to breed more than half the Eaton stock 

 up to high-class weight-for-age form, and there was 

 not much of a lottery in buying his yearlings, at what- 

 ever price especially a daughter of Ornament, sister 

 to Ormonde. Sceptre more than trebled her purchase 

 price in stakes alone as a two and three year old, and 

 then, when she failed for her second Lincoln Handicap 

 as a four-year-old, Mr Sievier, who had not been having 

 a good time, asked me to sell her, naming 24,000 guineas 

 as the price. 



Immediately on return from racing that day I wrote 

 to Mr Arthur Chetwynd asking him to transmit this 

 offer to Sir W. Bass, who was then in India, for it 

 seemed to me that a better nucleus for a first-class 

 stud could never be found. 



The following afternoon I went on from Lincoln to 

 Liverpool, and that evening in the billiard-room of the 

 Adelphi Hotel Mr Chetwynd arrived, who told me he 

 had just been fixing up the purchase of Sceptre for 

 .25,000, which, of course, is but ,200 less than 24,000 



