Greater excitement was never noticeable on Epsom Downs than on May 22nd,
1867. The public had gone dead for the Two Thousand winner, Vauban. He
had won the Newmarket race in great style by two lengths, and he
belonged to the popular Duke of Beaufort. Every third man you met
declared for Vauban, and in the enormous field of thirty the son of
Muscovite was backed down to 6 to 4. The ring naturally fielded heavily,
and there were stout partisans of Sir Joseph Hawley’s stable, as the
Kentish baronet was known to be exceedingly fond of The Palmer. There
was also a strong party behind Van Amburgh, and those who invariably
followed the boy in yellow stood Marksman. If he could quite stay home
was the question about The Rake, who had broken a blood-vessel, as also
had Hermit. But it was altogether a magnificent collection of horses on
the Derby day, and amongst others there was the handsome d’Estoarnel,
the shapely Julius, the useful Uncas, and the light-coloured bay from
France, Dragon.
It was a tremendous race as they swept round Tattenham Corner; Vauban,
Van Amburgh, Marksman, The Palmer, and Hermit were all in it, and shouts
in turn proclaimed Van Amburgh and Vauban as the winner by the time they
had reached the Bell, when Grimshaw brought out Marksman with a rush. He
would win, or he would not; a pink jacket was creeping on him; it was
Hermit. The race was a terrible one, but Johnny Daley had timed his
effort to a hair’s breadth, and the verdict was by a neck. Owing to the
breaking of a blood-vessel ten days before, Hermit’s starting price was
1,000 to 15; Mr. H. Chaplin, it was said, taking £100,000 out of the
ring, and that the Marquis of Hastings had lost as much; but figures may
have been exaggerated in the excitement of the time, and, at any rate,
it was a most popular victory. The great Middle Park Stud was a gainer
by it, as it had bred both Hermit and Marksman, the Squire of Blankney
expending 1,000 gs. for the possession of the former in his yearling
days. Mr. Chaplin has been heard to say that Hermit was his best friend,
as, besides the Derby _coup_, he bred him some great winners, made the
Blankney Stud, and became the greatest sire of his day.
The writer had a close inspection of Hermit in the winter of 1873, when
he had been at the stud some three or four years, and a good
two-year-old was much talked of by him in the Rev. Mr. King’s Holy
Friar, only beaten once in his seven attempts, and thought to be about
the smartest of the season. There was also the speedy Trappist, Per-se,
Brenda, St. Agatha and Maravella to give early promise of his stock, and
from that time he never looked back. A very impressive horse was Hermit.
Perhaps I was rather more taken with Rosicrucian the year before, but
that was in June, and the glorious little brown had his summer coat on.
When I looked over Hermit it was the end of December, and so there was
scarcely the same brightness apparent. He looked then a ruddy chesnut,
with no white bar or small streak down his face. A model in head,
shoulders, back and loins, and his quarters were very remarkable, so
full and thick, and coming down to a noticeable second thigh. This gave
him, perhaps, the cobby appearance he had, and made him look smaller
than he really was. One would not have thought him more than 15.2, but I
believe he was always reckoned to be 15.3. Very beautiful he was, his
outline quite perfect, and so blood-like.
His advancement in fame was very rapid, as by the time he was eleven
years old he stood very high indeed in the list of winning stallions,
and he became absolutely at the head a few years later, and then for
several seasons in succession. His son Trappist was considered the
speediest of his day until “aged” was appended to his name; and then
there was Peter, Devotee, Hermia, Out of Bounds, Trapper, Remorse, and
St. Hilda, all of one year, with Charon running as a four-year-old, when
he won the Brighton Cup as if he was one of the stoutest horses in
England.
That classic races would quickly follow the Blankney champion’s other
stud successes was certain enough, and his batch of 1878, when he was
just fifteen, brought him into this distinguished order, as the Duchess
of Montrose’s Devotion, a daughter of Stockwell’s, seemed to hit exactly
with Hermit. Her third produce was by him, foaled in 1878, and as
Thebais was destined to win the One Thousand and Oaks of 1881, being
unquestionably the best filly of her year. There was then quite a spell
of great doings to the credit of the Hermit family, as in 1879 were
foaled his daughters Shotover and St. Marguerite, who between them took
the Two Thousand, One Thousand and the Derby. A singularly fine mare was
Shotover, bred by Mr. Chaplin, and the style in which she won the Derby
under Tom Cannon made her a worthy successor in honours to Eleanor and
Blink Bonny. St. Marguerite, who beat Shotover in the One Thousand, was
still more beautiful. In the Plantation at Newmarket, when saddling for
her first race, someone said, “What a beautiful filly!” and Mr. Chaplin
replied, “That does not describe her. Has anyone ever seen anything more
perfect?”
To follow up the series of great successes, there was dropped, in 1880,
a colt afterwards known as St. Blaise, and he was the winner of the
Derby in 1883. Another Oaks winner was seen two years afterwards in
Lonely, and soon afterwards granddaughters of Hermit swelled the classic
rank, as, in 1888, Seabreeze, daughter of St. Marguerite, won the Oaks
and St. Leger, and the following season L’Abbesse de Jouarre, a daughter
of Trappist, was the heroine of the ladies’ race. Other great winners by
Hermit, and their descendants again, have been almost legion. There was
Timothy, winner of the Ascot Cup and Alexandra Plate in 1888; Gay Hermit
the Royal Hunt Cup in 1887; and Peter ditto seven years before; St.
Helena, second in the Oaks to Lonely, and winner of the Coronation
Stakes at Ascot; Philosophy, winner of the Great Whitsuntide Plate at
Manchester, and many other valuable races; Friar’s Balsam, probably the
best of his day; with Marden, Nautilus, Gordon, Raffaello, Ste-Alvere,
Grey Friars, Tristan, Queen Adelaide, Melanion, Whisperer, and really a
host of others too numerous to mention.
It is in subsequent generations, though, that the greatness of Hermit
has been so solid and remarkable. There is all the Devotion family, the
Sailor Prince family, through the mare Hermita by Hermit. This is
largely distributed through America, and there has been a return of it
into this country—the Amphion family, through Suicide by Hermit; the
Gallinules, including Pretty Polly, through Moorhen by Hermit; the Marco
line through Novitiate, the Orion branch through Shotover, the Solimans
through Albeche, the Father Confessors through the Abbot, the coming
produce of Black Sand, the Cesarewitch winner of 1902, and a very likely
sire, by Melanion, son of Hermit; the very numerous descents through the
daughters of Peter; and then there has been Mark, Torpedo, Retreat,
Whitehall, Zealot, Swillington, Southampton and Exile II. In sons there
is now, naturally, a dearth, as the old horse has been dead seventeen
years, and I have regretted that one of his youngest, Baron Rothschild’s
Heaume, died much too early, as he was a beautiful horse, a shade bigger
than his sire, but made like him, and in his action the same. It was a
pity also that Melanion left these shores when quite in his prime, but
still there was much usefulness in many that escaped the foreign buyer.
His son Exile II., for instance, got a better horse than himself in
Aborigine, the winner of the Ascot Stakes and the Alexandra Plate at the
same meeting. The Turf has shown, in fact, that the next generation in
male tail has possessed, if anything, more stamina than the immediate
sons of Hermit, as, besides Aborigine being stouter than his sire Exile
II., there has been Black Sand stouter than Melanion, and Whitefeather a
better stayer than Retreat; whilst in the case of Piety, who was out of
a Hermit mare, there was possibly nearly the greatest glutton over a
distance of all times.
So much, though, for the Turf proper, but there is another arena in
which Hermit’s name will be honoured for ever. Many by the Blankney
chesnut were very good jumpers and cross-country performers of
considerable ability, but with his fee at 250 guineas for many years his
offspring were rather too expensive for the jumping game generally.
However, such names as Bridget, second in the great hurdle race at
Kempton, Anchorite, Stylites, Spinster and Xavier recur to one’s memory,
and Mr. J. C. Hill and Mr. Brockton will still declare that there was no
safer conveyance over a country than Moorhen. It was through his sons in
the next generation, though, that this particular excellence came out,
as the best part of Retreat’s stock were his jumpers, if one excepts
Alice, a great mare over a distance of ground, and perhaps Whitefeather.
There was no greater honour taker though than Father O’Flynn, the
gallant winner of the Grand National in 1892, under the popular Captain
“Roddy” Owen. At that time also there were four or five first-class
steeplechasers by Retreat. One of Hermit’s first sons must have been
Ascetic, as he was foaled in 1871, and was out of Lady Alicia, a
Melbourne mare, at the time nineteen years old. She had produced a few
to run, such as Rapparee, winner of an Ascot Stakes, Ratcatcher, Ribbon,
and Ratcatcher’s Daughter. She could run a bit herself, too, among other
performances winning the Champagne Stakes at Stockbridge (Bibury Club)
as a two-year-old, it being a notable race, as she won by a short head
from Saucebox, the winner of the St. Leger in the following year, and
Lambs wool, who ran a dead-heat with Saucebox, whilst the fourth,
Redemption, was not beaten more than a neck. Lady Alicia also won a race
at Egham as a three-year-old. She was a very fine bred mare by Melbourne
out of Testy by Venison, her dam Temper by defence, and dropped at the
Causton Paddocks; she first of all belonged to Lord John Scott. When
turned out of training Mr. W. H. Brook had her for four or five years,
and sold her to the Rev. Mr. King (or Mr. Launde, to speak of him in his
racing name). This accounts for her being allied to Hermit in her old
age, as Mr. King’s well-known establishment was not far from Blankney.
The owner of Apology had, therefore, the honour of breeding Ascetic, but
he does not appear to have kept him very long, as he was brought out as
a two-year-old at Newmarket by a Mr. T. Smith, running but moderately in
the Exning Plate at the second spring meeting. This was his only
performance in public as a two-year-old, and he was brought out three
times the year following, but without gaining any success. He was
regarded, however, with a certain amount of respect, as his weight in
the Lincolnshire Handicap was 6 st. 12 lb., the winner, The Gunner, also
four years old, carrying 6 st. Then he ran in the Stewards’ Cup at
Goodwood at 7 st. 4 lb., and also in the Chesterfield Cup at 7 st. 1 lb.
He was second in the Champagne Stakes at Brighton, six furlongs, beaten
by the Master Fenton filly; with eight others behind him. He ran third
also in the Newal Stakes at Lewes, but in all, his performances were
nothing remarkable, excepting to show that he was the sort of racehorse
that so frequently develops into the high-class sire to get the best of
steeplechasers and hunters. Victor’s best distance was thought to be a
mile, and under a very light weight, 5 st. 13 lb., as a four-year-old,
he spread-eagled a large field for the Royal Hunt Cup at Ascot. Ascetic
was thought best of for the six furlongs in the Stewards Cup at Goodwood
and about his best race was over the easy six furlongs at Brighton. The
sharp quick horse to be into his bridle in a moment, as the saying goes,
seems to be the most likely horse to get jumpers.
In due course the clever Irish breeders secured Ascetic, and for a great
number of years his home was at Mr. John M. Purdon’s, Cloneymore,
Athboy, co. Meath. From this quarter he proved himself to be a second
Victor, or even more, as the latter never got a Grand National winner,
and four of these events have been credited to sons of Ascetic. Those
who have looked over Cloister will have retained the impression, as I
have done, that he was one of the grandest hunters ever seen. I saw him
take one of his victories at Aintree, but it was not the most important,
as he won, or was placed eight times over the course, and it was in the
autumn, when he won the Sefton, that I saw him. Standing over 16 hands,
with tremendous power everywhere, wonderful in front of the saddle, with
quite Leicestershire shoulders, and immense depth through the girth. Had
he a lean loin, or was it that his back ribs and big quarters made it
look light? I thought him one of the best-looking horses I had ever
seen, and what a performer! His second victory in the Grand National was
certainly the greatest performance ever heard of, as, against a good
field he galloped everything down when carrying 12 st. 7 lb., giving the
second horse, who finished forty lengths off, 31 lbs. To have got a dual
winner of the Grand National is a great boast, but Ascetic has done a
deal more. In 1903 there was another Grand National hero to take the
posthumous honour for Ascetic, and a very great horse, no doubt, is Mr.
John Morrison’s Drumcree; there being this to note also in his victory,
that he beat, amongst others, a grandson of Ascetic’s in Drumcree by
Royal Meath, one of the most beautiful of Ascetic’s sons, and a
brilliant performer over a country. This year comes more honour to the
memory of Ascetic (the old horse died in August, 1897), as Ascetic’s
Silver won his Grand National in quite the Cloister style, and the third
Aunt May was a daughter. Then there has been Roman Oak who did about
everything but win a Grand National, Royal Meath, West Meath, Breemont
Oak, Æsthetic, Hermit, Midnight, Noiseless, Leinster, Fairland, winner
of the Great Lancashire Steeplechase, Hidden Mystery, Aunt May, Nickel
Jack, and a host of others to make up over a hundred steeplechase
winners, so it is said.
There are other Hermit sires that have had this extraordinary gift of
getting jumpers, though perhaps in less degrees. Cassock got some very
good ones, and so has St. Honorat, Nautilus, Bookworm, Bold Marshall,
Edward the Confessor, The Abbot, Hawkstone, and Peter, but Ascetic and
Retreat brought in the Grand National records. It must not be forgotten,
also, that the hunters by the sons of Hermit have been quite unique. If
any one enquires about Birdsall or Malton, as to how the best hunters
have been bred of late in Yorkshire, they will hear nothing but praise
of the Gordons, and the Whisperers, Marks and Homilies have all done
their meed of good in hunting quarters. It would seem that Hermit’s
mission in life was to create an extraordinary family to be the very
mainstay of sport in every branch that has anything at all to do with
horses. It is estimated that three millions have been won by Hermit and
his descendants, and yet it is barely forty years since the scene at
Epsom was enacted. One recalls the suspense and excitement of the crowd,
the yellow in apparent command; then like a flash there is a pink
streak, as it were, closing, and the little interval, scarcely
perceptible to any but the judge, has made all the difference. Other
Derbies have followed in its wake—Ascot Cups, Goodwood Cups, many Oaks,
St. Legers, Alexandra Plates and Grand Nationals, have shaken the very
sporting world in widespread interest, and the thread of it all is from
Hermit.