CHAPTER XII

A FEW RECORDS

The highest priced Shires sold by auction have already been given. So a few of the most notable sales may be mentioned, together with the dates they were held--

£ _s._ _d._ Tring Park (draft), February 14, 1913: 32 Shires averaged 454 0 0 Tatton Park (dispersion), April 23, 1909: 21 Shires averaged 465 0 0 Tring Park (draft), February 14, 1905: 35 Shires averaged 266 15 0 The Hendre, Monmouth (draft), October 18, 1900: 42 Shires averaged 226 0 0 Sandringham (draft), February 11, 1898: 52 Shires averaged 224 7 9 Tring Park (draft), January 15, 1902: 40 Shires averaged 217 14 0 Tring Park (draft), January 12, 1898: 35 Shires averaged 209 18 2 Dunsmore (dispersion), February 11, 1909: 51 Shires averaged 200 12 0 Childwick (draft), February 13, 1901: 46 Shires averaged 200 0 0 Tandridge (dispersion), October 28, 1911: 84 Shires averaged 188 17 6

These ten are worthy of special mention, although there are several which come close up to the £200 average. That given first is the most noteworthy for the reason that Lord Rothschild only sold a portion of his stud, whereas the executors of the late Lord Egerton of Tatton sold their whole lot of twenty-one head, hence the higher average. Two clear records were, however, set up at the historical Tring Park sale in 1913, viz. the highest individual price for a stallion and the highest average price for animals by one sire, seven sons and daughters of Childwick Champion, making no less than £927 each, including two yearling colts.

The best average of the nineteenth century was that made at its close by the late Lord Llangattock, who had given a very high price privately for Prince Harold, by Harold, which, like his sire, was a very successful stock horse, his progeny making a splendid average at this celebrated sale. A spirited bidder at all of the important sales and a very successful exhibitor, Lord Llangattock did not succeed in winning either of the London Championships.

One private sale during 1900 is worth mentioning, which was that of Mr. James Eadie’s two cup-winning geldings, Bardon Extraordinary and Barrow Farmer for 225 guineas each, a price which has only been equalled once to the writer’s knowledge. This was in the autumn of 1910, when Messrs. Truman gave 225 guineas for a gelding, at Messrs. Manley’s Repository, Crewe, this specimen of the English lorry horse being bought for export to the United States.

In 1894 the late Lord Wantage held a sale which possessed unique features in that fifty animals catalogued were all sired by the dual London Champion and Windsor Royal (Jubilee Show) Gold Medal Winner, Prince William, to whom reference has already been made. The average was just over £116. As a great supporter of the old English breed, Lord Wantage, K.C.B., a Crimean veteran, deserves to be bracketed with the recently deceased Sir Walter Gilbey, inasmuch as that in 1890 he gave the Lockinge Cup for the best Shire mare exhibited at the London show, which Starlight succeeded in winning outright for Mr. Fred Crisp in 1892.

Sir Walter Gilbey gave the Elsenham Cup for the best stallion, value 100 guineas, in 1884, which, however, was not won permanently till the late Earl of Ellesmere gained his second championship with Vulcan in 1891. Since these dates the Shire Horse Society has continued to give the Challenge Cups both for the best stallion and mare.

The sales hitherto mentioned have been those of landowners, but it must not be supposed that tenant farmers have been unable to get Shires enough to call a home sale. On February 5, 1890, Mr. A. H. Clark sold fifty-one Shires at Moulton Eaugate, the average being £127 5_s._, the striking feature of this sale being the number of grey (Thumper) mares.

In February, 1901, Mr. Clark and Mr. F. W. Griffin, another very successful farmer breeder in the Fens, held a joint sale at Postland, the former’s average being £100 6_s._ 9_d._, and the latter’s £123 9_s._ 8_d._, each selling twenty-five animals.

The last home sale held by a farmer was that of Mr. Matthew Hubbard at Eaton, Grantham, on November 1, 1912, when an average of £73 was obtained for fifty-seven lots.

Reference has already been made to Harold, Premier, and Prince William, as sires, but there have been others equally famous since the Shire Horse Society has been in existence. Among them may be mentioned Bar None, who won at the 1882 London Show for the late Mr. James Forshaw, stood for service at his celebrated Carlton Stud Farm for a dozen seasons, and is credited with having sired over a thousand foals. They were conspicuous for flat bone and silky feather, when round cannon bones and curly hair were much more common than they are to-day, therefore both males and females by Bar None were highly prized; £2000 was refused for at least one of his sons, while a two-year-old daughter made 800 guineas in 1891. For several years the two sires of Mr. A. C. Duncombe, at Calwich, Harold and Premier, sired many winners, and in those days the Ashbourne Foal Show was worth a journey to see.

In 1899 Sir P. Albert Muntz took first prize in London with a big-limbed yearling, Dunsmore Jameson, who turned out to be the sire of strapping yearlings, two- and three-year-olds, which carried all before them in the show ring for several years, and a three-year-old son made the highest price ever realized at any of the Dunsmore Sales, when the stud was dispersed in 1909. This was 1025 guineas given by Lord Middleton for Dunsmore Jameson II. For four years in succession, 1903 to 1906, Dunsmore Jameson sired the highest number of winners, not only in London, but at all the principal shows. His service fee was fifteen guineas to “approved mares only,” a high figure for a horse which had only won at the Shire Horse Show as a yearling. Among others he sired Dunsmore Raider, who in turn begot Dunsmore Chessie, Champion mare at the London Shows of 1912 and 1913. Jameson contained the blood of Lincolnshire Lad on both sides of his pedigree. By the 1907 show another sire had come to the front, and his success was phenomenal; this was Lockinge Forest King, bred by the late Lord Wantage in 1889, purchased by the late Mr. J. P. Cross, of Catthorpe Towers, Rugby, who won first prize, and reserve for the junior cup with him in London as a three-year-old, also first and champion at the (Carlisle) Royal Show the same year, 1902. It is worth while to study the breeding of Lockinge Forest King.

_Sire_--Lockinge Manners.

_Grand sire_--Prince Harold.

_Great grand sire_--Harold.

_Great great grand sire_--Lincolnshire Lad II. 1365.

_Great great great grand sire_--Lincolnshire Lad 1196 (Drew’s).

The dam of Lockinge Forest King was The Forest Queen (by Royal Albert, 1885, a great sire in his day); she was first prize winner at the Royal Show, Nottingham, 1888, first and champion, Peterborough, 1888, first Bath and West, 1887 and 1888, and numerous other prizes. Her dam traced back to (Dack’s) Matchless (1509), a horse which no less an authority than the late Mr. James Forshaw described as “the sire of all time.”

This accounts for the marvellous success of Lockinge Forest King as a stud horse, although his success, unlike Jameson’s, came rather late in his life of ten years. He died in 1909. We have already seen that he has sired the highest priced Shire mare publicly sold. At the Newcastle Royal of 1908, both of the gold medal winners were by him, so were the two champions at the 1909 Shire Horse Show. His most illustrious family was bred by a tenant farmer, Mr. John Bradley, Halstead, Tilton, Leicester. The eldest member is Halstead Royal Duke, the London Champion of 1909, Halstead Blue Blood, 3rd in London, 1910, both owned by Lord Rothschild, and Halstead Royal Duchess, who won the junior cup in London for her breeder in 1912. The dam of the trio is Halstead Duchess III by Menestrel, by Hitchin Conqueror (London Champion, 1890).

Two other matrons deserve to be mentioned, as they will always shine in the history of the Shire breed. One is Lockington Beauty by Champion 457, who died at a good old age at Batsford Park, having produced Prince William, the champion referred to more than once in these pages, his sire being William the Conqueror. Then Marmion II (by Harold), who was first in London in 1891, and realized 1400 guineas at Mr. Arkwright’s sale. Also a daughter, Blue Ruin, which won at London Show of 1889 for Mr. R. N. Sutton-Nelthorpe, but, unfortunately, died from foaling in that year. Another famous son was Mars Victor, a horse of great size, and also a London winner, on more than one occasion. He was purchased by Mr. (Sir) Walter Gilbey from Mr. Freeman-Mitford (Lord Redesdale) in the year of his sire’s--Hitchin Conqueror’s--championship in 1890, for the sum of £1500. Another was Momus by Laughing Stock. Blue Ruin was own sister to Prince William, but the other three were by different sires.

To look at--I saw her in 1890--Lockington Beauty was quite a common mare with obviously small knees, and none too much weight and width, her distinguishing feature being a mane of extraordinary length.

The remaining dam to be mentioned as a great breeder is Nellie Blacklegs by Bestwick’s Prince, famous for having bred five sons--which were all serving mares in the year 1891--and a daughter, all by Premier. The first was Northwood, a horse used long and successfully by Lord Middleton and the sire of Birdsall Darling, the dam of Birdsall Menestrel, London champion of 1904. The second, Hydrometer, first in London in 1889, then sold to the late Duke of Marlborough, and purchased when his stud was dispersed in 1893 by the Warwick Shire Horse Society for 600 guineas. Then came Chancellor, sold at Mr. A. C. Duncombe’s sale in 1891 for 1100 guineas, a record in those days, to Mr. F. Crisp, who let him to the Peterborough Society in 1892 for £500. Calwich Topsman, another son, realized 500 guineas when sold, and Senator made 350. The daughter, rightly named “Sensible,” bred Mr. John Smith of Ellastone, Ashbourne, a colt foal by Harold in 1893, which turned out to be Markeaton Royal Harold, the champion stallion of 1897. This chapter was headed “A few records,” and surely this set up by Premier and Nellie Blacklegs is one.

The record show of the Shire Horse Society, as regards the number of entries, was that of 1904, with a total of 862; the next for size was the 1902 meeting when 860 were catalogued. Of course the smallest show was the initial one of 1880, when 76 stallions and 34 mares made a total of 110 entries. The highest figure yet made in the public auction sales held at the London Show is 1175 guineas given by Mr. R. Heath, Biddulph Grange, Staffs., in 1911 for Rickford Coming King, a three-year-old bred by the late Lord Winterstoke, and sold by his executors, after having won fourth in his class, although first and reserve for the junior cup as a two-year-old. He was sired by Ravenspur, with which King Edward won first prize in London, 1906, his price of 825 guineas to Lord Winterstoke at the Wolferton Sale of February 8, 1907, being the highest at any sale of that year. The lesson to be learned is that if you want to create a record with Shires you must begin and continue with well-bred ones, or you will never reach the desired end.