Blood Sires, 199 



very different types of "terribly high-bred cattle." 

 In point of what breeders emphatically call ^'quality," 

 horses differ immensely. Orlando had a great deal 

 of it, and so have many of his stock, as well as some 

 of the Venisons. In Sultan, whose head might have 

 beseemed a Belvidere Apollo among horses, it was 

 seen to very great perfection ; and, noble savage as 

 he was, Phlegon, out of Lucetta, showed perhaps as 

 much or more of it than any animal of the day. His 

 eye, and his whole attitude, as he arched his beautiful 

 neck, and half fixed his eye on his box visitors on 

 the Burleigh sale day, as if by a species of wild fasci- 

 nation trying to woo them within his hoof range, was 

 a study of animal nature such as we shall never forget. 

 It was his temper which marred his racing career, 

 and he would (like Slane) stop suddenly in his exer- 

 cise gallops, and then think better of it, and go on 

 and catch his horses again like the wind. The court- 

 yard at Burleigh, that lovely August afternoon, was a 

 perfect carnival of blood sires of every type and hue. 

 Midas, the blood pony of the day, was kept in strict 

 limbo by wooden reins, and sent forth an indignant 

 chorus of whinnies as his less favoured companions 

 were led past him to the hammer. Stockwell came 

 ambling out in his peculiar style, with his Roman 

 head and massive muscular points wonderfully fined 

 down since he all but broke Teddington's heart. 

 Phlegon glared on the assembly like a tiger, and was 

 led snorting away when no one would go beyond 

 190 guineas ; and Nutwith, with his almost matchless 

 back and quarters, presenting a perfect line of beauty 

 as you stood rather behind him, and did not care 

 to query whether his shoulder was not slightly loaded, 

 also returned to the place from whence he came for 

 1600 guineas. Then the lengthy Woodpigeon arrived, 

 whose gentleness well beseemed his name, and was 

 quite atoned for by the luckless Ambrose, who over 

 and over again beat Stockwell in private, and yet 



