Blood Sires. 197 



" the Beacon" out of fashion. West Australian was 

 spared that public auto dafe, while Wild Dayrell met 

 his fate " in another place," a martyr to his owner's 

 too rigorous feeling of honour. Wild Dayrell was 

 not quite so large as he looked, and only measured 

 sixteen one and a-quarter. A more magnificent topped 

 horse was never seen ; but, like Ephesus, he was an 

 inch too long in the leg for beauty, and rather light 

 below the knee, and tapered so decidedly from his 

 arm to the ground, besides turning his toes out, that 

 his owner may thank the splendid mossy texture of 

 the Weathercock Hill in Ashdown Park, that he kept 

 on his legs so long. He inherited his size from his 

 dam, Ellen Middleton, who was perhaps, with the 

 exception of being a trifle straight in the hocks, as 

 fine a brood mare as we ever saw. She was at Sweet- 

 meat's paddocks when we saw her in 1855, and one 

 of a long platoon of mares standing under a hedge 

 with their backs to the bitter east wind, among whom 

 were the dams of Mincepie and Sugarplum ; while one 

 of the first of the Mountain Deer foals, with hair as 

 long and roiigh as a billy-goat, stood defying the 

 breezes hard by. West Australian's form changed so 

 completely between the Derby and the St. Leger, 

 that his stable felt sure he must be lolbs. better or 

 lolbs. worse ; and we could hardly recognise in the 

 smart well-moulded horse of the autumn, the sleepy- 

 looking colt whom poor " Frank" mounted with any- 

 thing but grotind-\Qss apprehensions on the Derby 

 day. This infirmity prevented the world from ever 

 half-knowing what " my hack" could do at four years 

 old, although as a stayer John Scott ranked him 

 below Touchstone. Hence Teddington must, to our 

 minds, claim the palm for the best modern union of 

 speed, bottom, and weight-carrying power. His make 

 was a brilHant exception to conventional racing rules, 

 as he was a small short horse, in fact quite of the 

 Suffolk Punch order, in his two-vear-old season — low 



