220 MEMORIES OF MEN AND HORSES 



Lane on a Sunday, throw down on the pavement a 

 number of half-crowns the alleged value of the suit 

 he was offering. They would all be given to anyone 

 who could prove that the suit was not worth the money. 

 I must add that he urged the people to stand back, for 

 " some of them might have adhesive tar on their feet ! " 



Anyhow I have always striven to show that I practise 

 what I preach, and of course horse breeding is far too 

 slow a game to arrive at great results in a material 

 sense, unless you follow fashion, which, except in the 

 case of Collar, I have never done. 



It has been a great pleasure to watch the growth and 

 increasing success of new breeding studs in England, 

 such as those at Childwick Bury and Maiden Erlegh, 

 both of which, from small beginnings, have grown to 

 be among the most successful in this country. Indeed 

 the success of Mr J. B. Joel at the former place differs 

 most materially from that of his predecessor, Sir Blundell 

 Maple, but he has devoted the whole of the land to 

 blood stock, whereas Sir Blundell kept the part of it 

 known as the Shafford Stud for Shire horses, whom I 

 venture to consider useless brutes in any event. 



Studs without end have come and gone during these 

 thirty odd years : the Bruntwood Stud, where Major 

 James Platt first had Kendal ; the Howbury Stud, 

 where Robert Peck had Saraband, Perigord and other 

 good horses. 



Poor Robert Peck ! No more capable trainer ever 

 existed than he when he had Doncaster, and afterwards 

 Bend Or, in his charge, not to mention (with Gurry as 

 his lieutenant) The Bard ; but the last years of his 

 life were not as happy as they ought to have been 

 at least that is my impression. 



