292 A HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH TURF. 



withers, and in brisket, thighs and hocks, he was as good as he could be. His 

 length was exactly equal to three times the length of his head, a matter of proportion 

 which I shall have to examine more fully when we come to Eclipse. He lies 

 buried beside his old mate Crucifix, and John and Alfred Day each planted a cedar to 

 their memory. 



Bay Middleton 's offspring were not so good as Sultans, but good enough. The 

 most distinguished of them was The Flying Dutchman, a fine-looking very dark 

 brown without white, of whom I reproduced Herring's magnificent painting in my 

 first volume. He was out of Barbette (by Sandbeck) and had Bay Middleton' s splendid 

 arms, though his knee-action was by some critics considered to have accounted for a 

 doubtful Derby performance on the Epsom Hill. But in any case it was good 

 enough to win both that race and the St. Leger, and to revenge his defeat by 

 Voltigeur for the Doncaster Cup of 1850, by turning the tables in a two-miles match 

 at York the next year, in 3 minutes 55 seconds. With so renowned a performer it 

 will be appropriate to leave the stock of Selim and turn to Rubens, the last of the 

 famous trio of Woodpecker s grandsons. Rubens was only fit for the turn of speed 

 which seems best to suit the class of heavy- topped fleshy horse of sixteen hands he was. 

 The Prince sold him for a cheap thousand to Lord Darlington, who made a very good 

 thing out of the bargain. It is chiefly for his daughters that Rubens is celebrated, for 

 he was the sire of Landscape (Oaks, 1816), Pastille (Two Thousand, and Oaks, 1822, 

 her dam by PotSos] and Whizgig dam of Oxygen. His daughters, too, were the 

 dams of Defence, Recovery, Coronation and Ascot. One of the best of his sons was Sir 

 Joshua (1812), a chestnut horse of about fifteen hands out of a Sir Peter mare, the 

 vanquisher of the cleverly named Filho da Puta, a bay of sixteen and over 

 by Haphazard out of Mrs. Barnet by Waxy. 



I have now gone as far as is necessary with the Woodpecker branch of Herod's line, 

 and it is time to see how the blood came out that was transmitted by way of Mr. 

 Tattersall's famous Highflyer, a bay who was bred by Lord Bolingbroke. Though 

 his sons Noble, Skyscraper and Spadille were all winners, and his daughters Omphalc, 

 Violante, Cowslip and Young Flora were just as good, his most famous offspring was 

 Sir Peter Teazle, a brown (out of Papiilon by Snap) who beat O' Kelly and the Eclipse 

 party for the Derby, after which there was nothing too good for him at Knowsley, 

 where he stood while PotSos was at Eaton. Like himself his stock were nearly all 

 brown, arid nearly all as stout as he was, and took a deal of exercising. Among them 

 were Sir Harry (Derby, 1798), Archduke (Derby, 1799), Ditto (Derby, 1803), Paris 



