The Druid's Versatility. 253 



or followed the hounds across country on 

 horseback. It was universally admitted, 

 however, by those who knew him best, that 

 no man had a keener eye for a well-trained 

 racehorse, as he showed when, just before 

 the Two Thousand Guineas of 1855, he 

 pronounced that he had never seen an 

 animal sent to the post in better condition 

 than Mr. Merry's Lord of the Isles was by 

 William Day. His still living brother-in- 

 law, Mr. George B. Lynes (brother to Mrs. 

 Dixon), was formerly a very successful 

 breeder of hunters and hacks upon his pro- 

 perty in Northamptonshire, not far from 

 Althorp Park. Mr. Lynes attributes no 

 small portion of the success which attended 

 his efforts to raise thoroughbred hunters and 

 hacks to the advice given him by "The 

 Druid," when he first started in that line. 

 "I well remember," he writes, "that my 

 first mare for breeding purposes was a rather 

 small animal, sired by Skiff, a son of Parti- 

 san. ' The Druid ' advised me to put her to 

 the King of Oude, a powerful sire owned for 

 some time by the celebrated Tom Parr. 

 ' The Druid ' said, laughingly, that one of 



