'BAY middleton: 83 



most bitter malignity, until his lordship left Dane- 

 bury, and even after ! 



At the stud Bay Middleton was a gigantic failure. 

 I remember that when the man who came to Dane- 

 bury to take him to Doncaster, where most of his 

 lordship's mares were kept — ' a tyke,' I need not say 

 — saw him, he remarked derisively : 



' If he was not Bay Middleton, he would have to 

 beg his bread in Yorkshire.' 



I cannot call to mind so good a horse with such 



o 



running blood in his veins, so bad a sire. He was 

 the largest thoroughbred I ever saw, very tall, nearly 

 seventeen hands high, with a bad middle, being as 

 shallow in his fore-ribs as he was light in his back, and 

 stood wretchedly bad on his fore-legs — upright as a 

 walking-stick — and light below the knee. He had 

 forty to fifty of the best mares put to him for many 

 years, and, if I remember right, got very few good 

 ones for his lordship himself. Of his produce, Flying 

 Dutchman, the winner of the Derby and St. Leger, 

 was Lord Eglinton's ; and Andover, also a Derby 

 winner, was bred by Mr. William Etwall, of Long- 

 stock, Hants — once a Blue-coat boy. Nor were 

 Hermit, Aphrodite, or Vanderdecken bred by Lord 

 George. But the following: two were : Farintosh out 

 of Camarine 's dam, a most beautiful yearling, and 

 heavily engaged — but he went a roarer, and was good 

 for nothing ; and Gaper, who could run, but was far 

 from a good horse. Several of the rest he bred won 



G— 2 



