CHAPTER XIII 



WHEN BOSTON MET FASHION 



He went back to Virginia beaten by Fashion 

 and John Blount, having been distanced in the 

 first heat of that race. That his defeat was a 

 reasonable thing nobody thought for a moment. 

 The immediate result of his misfortune was that 

 a note was sent North to the owners of Fashion, 

 challenging her to run him in the following 

 spring on her own ground for ^20,000 a side. 



Fashion was a daughter of the English horse 

 Trustee, who was imported by Commodore Stock- 

 ton of New Jersey. To Trustee was sent that 

 celebrated mare Bonnets o' Blue. She was a 

 daughter of Sir Charles out of Reality, " the very 

 best race-horse," said Colonel William R. Johnson, 

 " I ever saw " (meaning by that the mare Reality). 

 Bonnets o' Blue carried in her veins a preponder- 

 ance of that Diomed or Sir Archy blood which 

 had made Virginia horses so famous, and she 

 was no mean mate for this English horse that 

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