106 The Horse-breeding liidnstry in Yorkshire. 



of pure-bved animals thus steadily declining. A turning point 

 in the modern history of the breed came in 1884, when its 

 supporters, having recognised the need for active measures in 

 order to ensure the preservation of the old strains, formed 

 a breed society and established the Cleveland stud-book. This 

 resulted in a revival of its fortunes at a timely moment, for 

 in the seventies these had fallen very Ioav. Another factor 

 of importance which helped to revive interest in the breed 

 during the eighties, was the brisk demand for Cleveland Bay, 

 as well as Yorkshire Coach Horse breeding stock, which arose 

 in the United States. A regular boom in these two breeds 

 ensued over there at that period. This resulted in a rapidly 

 growing export trade to that country, and even some breeders 

 in Northumberland took up these horses at that time and 

 exploited the demand for them. The Clevelands and York- 

 shire Coachers were not kept separate in America, but fused 

 into one breed, a common stiid-book for them being founded. 

 Unfortunately the American boom came to an end in the early 

 nineties, the attention of breeders there being caught by the 

 North German and French Coach Horses, which have now 

 very largely superseded the Yorkshire breeds in America. 



An historic patriarch of the Cleveland Bay breed in olden 

 times was the Hob Hill Horse, a stallion that left a great mark 

 in the Cleveland district a little over a hundred years ago, and 

 who ranks as the principal foundation sire of the modern strains. 

 His owner was John Weatherill, of Hob Hill, Skelton-in- 

 Cleveland. Two other leading lines of blood were founded by 

 Du7isJey's D((?i, a horse travelled in North Yorkshire round 

 about 1760 apparently, and by Bai^ley Harvefit, who stood in 

 the district at the same period as the Hob Hill Horse. Another 

 noted old-time sire was Skyrocket, owned in the early j)art 

 of last century by Thomas Masterman of Nunthorpe, a 

 prominent breeder of that era, who kept several Cleveland 

 stallions of repute, and who was closely associated with 

 the development of the breed. In the thirties and forties 

 a stallion called Drover had a considerable reputation as a 

 sire of good stock, and was very successful in the show- 

 ring. Among the most notable sires from the fifties onwards 

 until the eighties were Wonderful Lad, and his son Wonderful, 

 foaled 1866 ; Brilliant, foaled 1861, one of whose best-known 

 sons was Spoi^tsman; Ba7maby ; Blandsby, subsequently re- 

 named Emperor, under which name he is recorded in the 

 foundation volume of both the Cleveland and the Yorkshire 

 Coach Horse stud-books ; and Fidius Dins, foaled 1871, sire 

 Rosebi'ry, the last also having been a prize-winning horse of 

 some note. There were about that period, and earlier also, a 

 good many other Cleveland and Coaching stallions named 



