2 24 Silk and Scarlet. 



his own standard was just above sixteen, and Quiver 

 was by far the smallest thing he ever got. Mr. 

 Ridsdale gave eight hundred guineas for his brother 

 George IV. as a yearling, but he turned out a most 

 sorry bargain ; and a mere foil for his elder brother. 

 His finest daughter, Queen of Trumps, was a bad 

 beginner ; and if you watched her gallop, she went 

 lame first with one leg and then with the other, till 

 you became convinced that she was " lame all round." 

 One small knot on Velocipede's off fore-leg, half-way 

 between the knee and the fetlock, pressed on the 

 inner tendon, and made him the magnificent cripple 

 he was, and oddly enough, as if to knock over all 

 theories, his whole chestnut leg was the one affected. 

 After his fatal trial Scott and George Izard hardly 

 left him for three weeks, night or day, and George 

 never ceased applying lotions to it, as the last hope of 

 getting him round. He would let them do it as he 

 lay, but the mischief was too deeply seated, and there 

 was no more dependence to be placed on the sinew, 

 though the heart was never found to falter. 

 Velocipede's Stud When he went first to the stud, he was 

 Days and Death, stationed at Ainderby, which seems on a 

 clear day to nestle beneath the range of the Hamble- 

 ton hills, and " commanded the whole country " for 

 two seasons. The village were not unmindful of the 

 high honour of his stay, and his portrait still creaks 

 mournfully on the ale-house sign. And well they 

 might be, as a four-thousand offer from the foreigners 

 was promptly refused. Eventually he passed out of 

 Mr. Armytage's hands into Dr. Hobson's, and stood 

 at the Shadwell Lane Paddocks near Leeds. John 

 Scott often came over to see him, and ^' Ah! if I had 

 only such a four-year-old as you, with sound legs, I 

 could break the world,'' fell more than once on his 

 groom Berridge's ear, when the two old friends met in 

 the box. His last public appearance, so to speak, was 

 at Doncaster in 1846, whither he accompanied some 



