288 MEMORIES OF MEN AND HORSES 



Minthe from her, the latter being a Thousand Guineas 

 winner. 



Robert Vyner long survived his brother, and he had 

 the Fairfield Stud, with Minting and other stallions 

 there for many years. His factotum in the later days 

 was Wharton Watson, a strange character, who in 

 earlier times was known as " The Yorkshire Spend- 

 thrift," from his frequent residences in York Castle ; but 

 he got on well with Mr Vyner, and after the exuberance 

 of youth he was, I dare say, as staid and sensible as 

 most of us. 



Robert Vyner never bred anything really good after 

 Minting and Minthe, and the big horse was very dis- 

 appointing after he had led off so brilliantly with Mint- 

 ing Queen. It was not for lack of good mares from 

 public breeders, and there were many rarely bred ones 

 at the home stud, such as those of " Parson " King's 

 Manganese family, through Agility as good a little 

 mare as ever ran. I saw her beat Rosicrucian fairly 

 and squarely one year for the York Cup, though she 

 was disqualified. 



Somehow or other nothing very great could be done 

 with this breed, and Crowberry, who hunted Ayrshire 

 home for the Derby, was the best horse that Mr R. C. 

 Vyner ever bred from it. He was, however, intensely 

 interested in breeding, and the last time I ever saw him, 

 which was when we lunched in a restaurant car on the 

 Great Northern Railway, he talked on no other subject. 

 He had sent mares to The Victory and had plenty of 

 initiative in his ideas, being by no means a slave of 

 fashion. 



He had also in his stud a favourite line from the 

 famous mare by Underhand out of the Slayer's Daughter 



