CURSORY REMARKS. 
m 
to admit or reject. It is asserted that, if a stallion tires at the 
end of an hour one day, he will tire, or appear to tire, at the 
end of fifty minutes the next, and so on until he “shuts up” 
just when he pleases. That there have been such cases, I doubt 
not, but I must suppose them to be rare ones. I have not only 
seen scores of stallions brilliant and stout hunters, but I could 
name many — Mr. R. Canning’s Knowsley, for one — which I think 
would never have done what they did under high weights, had 
they not been stallions. Knowsley, however, was a rara avis 
in another way, for he attended markets, as a covering stallion, 
in the spring, and carried seventeen stone in the winter, for 
many consecutive years ; but it is not one horse in a hundred who 
is fit to be trusted in a crowd, after having been thus used. 
I forget whether or no Jack-a-lantern covered when Mr. Thomas 
Asheton Smith rode him in Leicestershire (he was the sire of 
many good hunters) ; but what a clipper^' over a country was he ! 
To shew, however, the danger of putting a stallion-hunter to a 
mare, I will relate the following anecdote of one, once in my 
own possession. 
Some years back I gave Mr. Vevers, of racing, horse-breeding, 
and riding celebrity, a hundred guineas for a horse called Bolus, 
by Doctor, out of a sister to Grey Pilot, which he had made 
quite'perfect as a hunter, after he had done racing. Now to 
shew the extreme docility of this animal, I need only mention 
two facts : first, having thrown off a lad at a fence, as he was 
riding him after me (as second horse), he pursued his career 
with the hounds until he overtook me ; when, knowing the horse 
I rode, he “ formed up” against him, as the dragoons say, so 
closely, that I jumped off my blown horse, and got upon him 
without touching the ground, leaving the former standing still 
until the boy came up to him. This happened about half way 
up Bredon Hill, with Mr. Horneyhold’s hounds. Again, with 
Lord Seagrave’s pack, the bridle rein of Mr. Washbourn, of 
Gloucester, got under his tail in a gateway, when a general kick- 
ing match was expected ; but Bolus stood stock still until Mr. W. 
dismounted, and lifted up the tail which had shut down on his 
bridle rein, and held it as though it had been a vice. Now 
for the sequel to all this. I sold Bolus to Mr. Tynte, M.P. for 
Bridgewater, for two hundred and eighty guineas, and he rode 
him two seasons as the same identical quiet animal that he was 
whilst in my possession ; but in the third season he became so 
* The word “clipper” reminds me that in a run over the Harborough 
country, Mr. Lindow on the Clipper, and Mr. Smith on Jack-a-Lantern, 
rode every man who started fairly out of sight : “ Look behind you,” said 
the former, at a check : “ not a soul to be seen !” 
