Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1903-11-06
Lou Dillons Ora d q m.

Lou DiIlons Grandan.
A most remarkable statement concern
ing the maternal grandam of Lou Dillon,
1854. has come from the Pacific slope,
in a letter from that veteran horseman,
Joseph Cairn Simpson, to the american
Horse Breeder, of Boston. Under date
of Oct. 10, 1908, Mr.. Simpson writes {:
"'As sure as eggs is eggs the grandam
of Lou Dillon was Lady Fairfield, by
Imp Bonnie Scotland, her dam Lady
Lancaster by Imp. Monarch. The owner
of Milton Medium. John Mendenhall,
told Green Thompson, the man who be-
came the owner of Fly, that he bought
her of j. S. Kimhall, to whom she was
presented by Ralston. Mr.. Thompson
tells me that she was 10 years when she
dropped Lou Milton, and when the filly
was six weeks old his boy tied her Fly
to the fence, and when he went out he
found her dead. William Patrick. a
stableman, owner of runners and trot-
tiers, among the runners being Regent,
brought Lady Fairfield, sister to Regent,
here, and sold her to j. S. Kimball.
Some years after, either Mr. Kimball, or
a man in his employ, told me that Lady
Fairfield was tied in a wide stall, got
cast and died. have a clear recollec-
ton of being informed of her death, and
it may be that my informant had heard
of her death and thought that it was in
stall, or that part of my recollection is at
fault.
1.-THE purchase of a mare of the man
who at that time was the owner of Lady
Fairfield, that had foal at an age which
Lady Fairfield was, but above all the CO.
incidence in the manner of their deaths,
is certainly strong evidence"
l have given all the important por-
ton of Mr.. Simpsons letter, because he
is thorough horseman, an honest man
and one who is ION the ground as it
were; and also because the american
Horse Breeder, its opinion being formed.
apparently, from lis CORE pDndenl's
story, goes 50 far as t. sly that Lady
Fairfield was the second dam of Lou
Union 'dIlntSU 10 Il &C Ttdl1IN. w TN MI
respt ct 10 thetwo authorities Just named,
| must lor ounce the Yam the very
thinncet ever put forward in behalf of
the ltdipr'c IF an inn ortant animal
In The saline issue of the paper in which
it apItars is given WY interesting in
terNItw, ctpcd from the California
Breeder and Sportsman, with Green
Thon Ison, of inc Flat, Cal. In 1880
Mr.. Ih, mpson said, his friend John
Mendnhall, who owned Milton Medium,
turned over to him II colts and fillies by
that horse, and the mare Fly, in foal to
him, because Mendenhall wished to take
his stallion to Oregon. In 1881 Fly foaled
Lou Milton. She Fly) was described as
dark chestnut mare, about 1913 hands
high, one hind foot white nearly to the
ankle. She had star and a strip that
started little below the star, and ex-
tended to the nose, when it broadened
out. She was mixed gated but could
trot 2:20 gait.
This statement, while throwing no
light on the breeding of Fly, so far as
have quoted, seems to be an unquestion-
able presentation of facts. No breeding
could be better supported than by the
man, Mendenhall, who owned both the
horse and the mare that We're responsible
for the birth of Lou Milton, and there
could have been no reason for misrepre-
sentatiOn. How do these indisputable
facts fit the Lady Fairfield theory? She
was a bay, not a chestnut, mare, foaled
in 1868, and would have been ~ years
old, at which age Mr.. Simpson says she
died, in 1880, the year before Lou Milton
was foaled The Coincidence of the
mares Fly and Lady Fairfield being each
II years old at death does not seem very
powerful, when they died a year apart
Nor does the coincidence in the manner
of their deaths seem startling, when one
died in a wide stall, apparently well
cared for, by being cast, not an unusual
occurrence; and the other died while
hitched to fence and seemingly
neglected.
All these discrepancies are not neces-
sary to show that Lady Fairfield and Fly
could not have been the same mare. The
former was duly recorded thorough
bred, and from the highest strains, beng
by Imp. Bonny Scotland, dam Lady
Lancaster by Imp. Monarch, and running
back to Oriental blood through the most
approved sources. According to Mr..
Simpson himself, she was raced when
three and four years old by William
Patrick, the man who brought her to
California. And now we are called upon
to believe that this blue-blooded Lady
Fairfield, heiress to all the ages of
thoroughbred greatness, indispensable
for the fashionableness of her lineage at
the time, and when but 12 years old, in
her prime for the stud, was allowed to
masquerade as ely, pedigree Unknown
1t is stupendous that any credence should
be given to such tale.
1t was my purpose, at present. simply
to demolish the Lady Fairfield fiction,
which / think has been done. Next week
l may be able to give more reasonable
version of the pedigree of Lou billions
maternal grandam. GRIFFIN"