The Darley Arabian^ 239 



And so the tide of luck and fashion ^ . . 

 in thorough-breds has ebbed and flowed 

 for many a long year. The yearlings by Waxy, 

 Whalebone, Tramp, Reveller, Emilius, Dr. Syntax, 

 Sultan, and Velocipede, have all held sway in their 

 turn ; and then the stars of Touchstone, Venison, 

 Birdcatcher, Orlando, and Melbourne arose, and 

 shone with a still steadier light. It was not, how- 

 ever, until two-year-old racing began to come in 

 earnest, at Lord George's beck, that breeders looked 

 to public, and not to private sales, and gradually, in 

 self-defence, forced their yearlings to two-year-old 

 estate by their second autumn. Men of the old school 

 might well fancy it a dream, as they strolled down to 

 the Salutation, and saw Hunting Horn or Touchwood 

 brought out to the hammer. The dispersion of the 

 Hampton Court stud in '37 gave a slight fillip to 

 prices ; but still three hundred guineas continued to 

 be thought a capital bidding clencher ; and it was 

 only when the rivalry of Messrs. Crawfurd, Merry and 

 Padwick had made the "yellow jack" so prevalent, 

 that every breeder, big and little, considered that he 

 had an especial mission to rear a thousand-guinea 

 yearling. 



And so at last, from post and paddock, we must 

 pass on to hound and horn. Although we have lin- 

 gered so fondly over the hosts of turf worthies and 

 their riders, who have come forth year after year 

 at the sound of the saddling-bell, we must still have 

 left scores of pleasant incidents of man and horse 

 untold. We never pass into the yard at Tattersall's 

 without thinking, with all an author's envy, of the 

 rich bits of character which have been dropped there, 

 with no pen to " fix them," when the " portly York 

 ruled in the touting dominions," and the eighteen or 

 twenty sterling bookmakers clustered in that little 

 room on the left, whose portals old Jonathan Bray 

 guarded with such fidelity and valour. Three of the 



