The Horse-hreeding Industry in Yorkshire. 87 



of the landmarks in the modern history of Yorkshire horse- 

 breeding. Among the hunter sires of note used about a 

 generation earlier than the period just alluded to were Old 

 President, MacOrville, Theon, Perion, who at one time stood 

 in the Cleveland district, and at a later period Young or Bay 

 President, also called President Junior, a son of Old Prei^ident. 

 In the seventies, the stallion Highthorme by Camerino, out 

 of a Sir Tatton Sykes mare, was another noted sire of hunters, 

 and got many prize winners. He was bred by Mr. Lumley 

 Hodgson, of Highthorne, Northallerton way, an acknowledged 

 authority on the breeding of hunters. An interesting letter 

 written by him about Yorkshire horse-breeding is incorporated 

 in a paper on half-bred horses, contributed by Lord Cathcart 

 to Vol. 19 of the R.A.S.E. Journal, though it must be con- 

 fessed he wrote in a pessimistic vein about the industry at 

 that stage (1882), deploring its decline in strong words. 



Undoubtedly hunter-breeding in Yorkshire fell rather 

 under a cloud towards the end of the seventies and in the 

 early eighties, what with some of the old breeders falling out 

 owing to agricultural depression, and many farmers turning 

 their attention from the raising of light horse stock to the 

 production of Shire-bred cart-horses, which about then came 

 much into vogue as being a possibly more lucrative, and 

 certainly more dependable business. Hackney-breeding, too, 

 commenced to come into the ascendant, that also tending not 

 inappreciably to interfere with the hunter industry. Added 

 to all this, a scarcity of suitable hunter brood mares was 

 complained of — a complaint which then, and even earlier, was 

 quite as prominent as it is nowadays. This shortage was largely 

 ascribed to the constant drain upon the stock of half- 

 bred mares by foreign buyers. However, even when the 

 industry was at a low ebb, some good support for hunter- 

 breeding continued to be forthcoming in several quarters ; 

 Lord Middleton, for one, did yeoman service in keeping up 

 the old breed of hunters, and came prominently to the fore 

 as a breeder about this time. He added considerably to the 

 stud of hunting brood mares, which had already previously 

 been kept for upwards of twenty years by his father, Henry, 

 eighth Lord Middleton, and continued the latter's policy of 

 keeping thoroughl^red hunter sires for use in the district, 

 so doing much to foster the breeding of half-bred horses. 

 Another very noted stud in existence at this period was 

 that of the late Mr. Henry Constable, at Wassand, near 

 Hull. It consisted of thoroughbred mares, and he bred a 

 few race-horses, but most of the colts produced here were 

 hunters of the 13 or 14 stone type. He had, among others, 

 such sires as llieohald, The Baron, Foreshore, Lowlander, and 



