254 Life and Times of " The Druid!' 



her produce might one day be good enough 

 to carry Royalty, if I took care to have her 

 foals as well broken as it was my custom to 

 do. King of Oude was a horse of immense 

 bone, with large lop ears of the Melbourne 

 type. He had won many Queen's Plates, 

 but through bad treatment on going to the 

 stud he had turned a perfect savage, so that 

 his food and water were frequently lowered 

 into his box from the loft above by his then 

 owner, a distant relative of Tom Parr, and 

 with the same name, who was a tenant of 

 my father. My first foal by him I named 

 ' Rural Dean.' He began by winning the 

 first prize in the lighter class of hunters at 

 Islington, but he was quite able, although 

 called a light horse, to carry thirteen stone. 

 He won the open Brigstock Steeplechase, 

 ridden by the eccentric Dick Webster, 

 who caused great amusement when Rural 

 Dean was shown at Islington, by jumping 

 him into the ring over the boundary fence, 

 and going out in the same way. The atten- 

 tion of the Prince of Wales was called to this 

 horse by Dick Webster, and His Royal 

 Highness ended by buying Rural Dean 



