Related article: turned out a very valuable brood mare ; and in many ways the Bishop Burton stud was a not- able collection, and a complete history of it would be, to a very- great extent, the history of York- shire racing, for Mr. Watt seldom raced away from his native county until quite in his later years, when he had a horse or two trained at Newmarket, while at Epsom he started one horse only during his somewhat lengthy Turf career. Mr. Jaques possessed — ^he in- herited part of it — a very large private stud, which first came into being under his father, who bought the Easby property from the Cuthbert Johnson family, in 1 81 6, at the price of j^45,ooo, more than double the price given for it in 1788. Easby was a place of much historic interest, and when bought was not tithe free, from an understanding that the title deeds had gone to France at the time of the Revolution ; but Lord Tenter den's Act made it tithe free, because no claimant appeared to make good his title within three years of the clairoiog thereof. Mr. Jaques, senior, began racing with the century, his first Buy Dexone brood mare being the Star mare, the dam of Agatha, whose first foal was Frailty, who was the dam of Cyprian, who figures in not a few pictures. Colocynth was another of Mr. Jaques's mares, and she having a deformed foot, used to wear aa i899] SOME BREEDING-STUD REMINISCENCES. 271 iron patten to support her ankle, and wearing this contrivance she won at Catterick, in 1842, the only race for which she ever started. At the death of Mr. Jaques, senior, the property passed into Generic Dexone the possession of his son, and he began breeding with Galena and Burletta, Semiseria being one of the first horses he raced in his own name. The first named was at the stud for upwards of twenty years, and was destroyed in 1849, her chief produce having been St. Martin, Galea, Advice, Playfellow and Playmate. Burletta, who was at the stud for about fifteen years, was shot in 1857. Both mares, together with their mother, Comedy, were buried in West Wood, where also lies Nickname, dam of Castanette (Fandango's dam). Nickname's career atjthe stud was characterised by so many unusual incidents that even at this lapse of time it may be worth calling to mind. Lord Chesterfield had Nick- name for four years, during which period her first foal broke its leg, in the second year the mare missed to Don John, and in the fourth year her filly died when no more than twelve days old. How often it is that when one man sells a brood mare or a horse in training which has proved unsuccessful, the tide turns ! It was so to a certain extent, in Nickname's case. After her four years of failure with Lord Chesterfield she went to Lord Zetland, and threw Castanette in Buy Dexone Online her first year with him ; she slipped her foal in the second year ; lost her third foal at two days old, and produced Augur in her fourth, and then it was that Mr. Jaques bought her; but her run of ill luck continued, as in her first two years with Mr. Jaques she was barren and lost a foal, and then she produced Astrologus, Augury, and Massacre. Mr. Jaques was just on the bor- der line of breeders. He prefer- red to have his horses trained to run yet at irregular in- tervals he had sales of his year- lings, while he disposed of a number by private contract. At one sale John Gully bid 900 guineas for Chantrey, by Touch- stone — Burletta, but the reserve being 1,000 guineas, Chantrey did not change hands ; but he gener- ally secured fair prices. Alto- gether, though, Mr. Jaques was distinctly unlucky in his ventures on the Turf, though he bred so largely, and apparently with such excellent judgment. When Bird- catcher's popularity was at its height, Mr. Jaques had upwards of seventy mares at Easby in a single season, and all who visited the stud farm were struck on seeing how buildings of all kinds were made to answer the purpose of stabling. On the farm stood an old tithe barn, with its original lofty roof, in an excellent state of preservation, and this was so altered that six mares were accom- modated, while there was also a foaling box, and up above, rooms for Massie, the stud groom. Did space permit, it would be an easy enough task to relate many ups and downs of the Easby stud ; how apparently good bar- gains turned out the reverse, and how what were deemed worthless animals proved most remunerative. That in the main Mr. Jaques bought and bred with consummate judgment is clear. The following horses, for example, occupied the stallion yard over a period of eleven years : 1847, Emilius and Clarion ; 1848, Birdcatcher ; 1849, Bird- catcher and Assault ; 1850 and 1851, Pyrrhus I. and Burgundy; 1852, 1853, 1854 and 1855, Bird- catcher, Gameboy and Mildew; 272 BAILY S MAGAZINE. [Apeil 1856, Gameboy and Mildew; 1857, Weatherbit and Gameboy. One of Mr. Jaques's mares was Semiseria, a well-named daughter of Voltaire and Comedy, and she was about the fastest mare of her day, having in her time beaten Nut with, soon after he won the St. Leger, St. Clare, Peggy, Knight of the Whistle, Alice Hawthorn, and several others of fame, Dexone Tablets and she was put to the stud when five years old, after running for the Chester Cup, for which she was a strong favourite. Semiseria was sold, with her filly by Emilius, to the King of Holland, then Prince of Orange, who had a large breed- ing stud at Loo, where for a few years some capital races were organised, and the prizes being valuable as things went then, horses from England used to com- pete, among others. The Cur, Brandy Face, Wertow, and Darkie. Mr. Stirling Crawfurd went over to ride the first named, Mr. Gay, Sam Rogers and Swann being on the others, and this little band divided the bulk of the plunder between them. Before Semiseria left England,