248 JOHN PORTER OF KINGSCLERE 



yearling and foal when Lily Agnes was for the 

 first time allied with Bend Or. Ormonde was 

 the result of this alliance. 



" It was," relates Chapman, " at half-past six on 

 Sunday evening, March i8, 1883, that Ormonde was 

 born. I was getting ready to go to Eaton Church (the 

 Duke expected all of us to attend) when I was summoned 

 to the box, in the big stud-yard, occupied by Lily Agnes. 

 Ormonde was an extraordinary foal. When he came 

 into the world his mane was already three inches long. 

 His mother had carried him twelve months, although for 

 two or three weeks she had shown the normal signs of 

 approaching foaling. For several months Ormonde 

 stood very much over at the knee. I had never before, 

 and have never since, seen a foal with this characteristic 

 so pronounced. It seemed impossible for him ever to 

 grow straight. But he did, though the improvement 

 was very gradual. 



" Did the Duke at that time regard Ormonde as a 

 wonder ? No, I should say not. Like a good many 

 others who came to the stud that year, the Duke pre- 

 ferred Kendal and Whitefriar, who were contemporaries 

 of Ormonde. He was one of the slow-maturing sort was 

 Ormonde. In his early days he was a three-cornered 

 beggar that might be anything or nothing. When he 

 did begin to develop on the right lines he went ahead 

 very quickly, and when he left Eaton to go to Kingsclere 

 to be trained, looked a high-class horse." 



Ormonde was a yearling at Eaton when I 

 first saw him. It was in the spring, and he was 

 then a big, overgrown colt. When, in the 

 autumn, he arrived at Kingsclere, I told the Duke 



