'OLD JOHN DAY'S BITTER PILL.' 59 



of Mr. Gully's ever having had more than a half-share 

 in the horse, and the possibility of his having given 

 my father £100 for the remaining half-share. It is 

 not at all unlikely that my father, like other trainers 

 before and after him, may have been in temporary 

 need of money. But no one can for a moment 

 suppose that he would have done anything so 

 fatuously absurd as to have accepted £100 for his 

 half-share of the horse from the ex-pugilist, when, 

 had he felt disposed to part with it at the time, he 

 could readily have got twenty times the amount by 

 offering it to anyone else. But I will go further and 

 show, in the most conclusive manner, how my father 

 became possessed of Pyrrhus the First, and what he 

 gave for him and his dam. 



In 1843 he bought Old England (or, as he was 

 then called, The Fortress Colt) of Colonel Bouverie, 

 of Delapre Abbey, Northamptonshire, for £150, as a 

 yearling ; and liked him so much (probably having 

 had a taste of his merit), that, in the autumn of that 

 year, he went and saw the Colonel again and asked 

 him what he would take for the colt-foal by Epirus, 

 then by the side of his dam. The answer was : 

 ' John, I will sell you the mare Fortress and foal for 

 £250, if you like to have them ;' and at that price 

 my father bought them, and they went straight to 

 Danebury ; which spot the colt, the future Pyrrhus the 

 First, never left until he was sold after winning the 

 Derby. So I have no need to repeat that the horse 



