24 The Post and the Paddock. 



ling, they are often made worse. We seldom hear of 

 a horse going blind during his training, although 

 Phantom, Sweetmeat, and several other good horses 

 have done so when it was over ; and, on the whole, 

 blindness is not nearly so prevalent in England as in 

 Ireland, which is attributed by some to the much 

 dryer climate. Robson's system, like that advocated 

 by Sir Charles Bunbury, was far from being a severe 

 one; and his horses were full of vigour and muscle, 

 and by no means low in flesh. The Chifneys pro- 

 fessed to be great admirers of his regime, but their 

 practice and profession hardly corresponded ; still 

 their brilliant luck with horses whose constitutions 

 would permit of their being always sent along, pro- 

 cured them many copyists. Their rivals represented 

 them as giving Priam eight-mile sweats ; whereas 

 they affirmed that owing to his being a narrow, light- 

 fleshed horse, he was seldom sweated more than three 

 miles once a week, and without his clothes. John 

 Day, senior, was one of the admirers of strong sweats, 

 more especially in his treatment of two-year-olds; 

 but his notions became very much modified of late 

 years. His son John never held them, and stands up 

 so stoutly for strong walking exercise, as to furnish 

 grounds for a joke to the effect that Pyrrhus the First 

 did nothing else in the 25 days between the New- 

 market Stakes and the Derby. William Day is 

 popularly supposed to adopt the severe system ; but 

 be this as it may, we do not think that we ever saw 

 a horse brought to the post in more perfect form than 

 Lord of the Isles was for the Two Thousand. 

 "Grandfather Day" used to train at Houghton Down, 

 where he was right ably assisted by his fine old Saxon 

 dame, who knew as much about condition and farriery 

 (strangles was her great subject) put together, as the 

 ablest member of the Royal Veterinary College. The 

 late Miss Ann Richards, of Ashdown Park memory, 

 used to leave her coach and six, and head the beaters 



