144 Sir Walter Gilhey, Bart. 



the history of English agriculture, and a favourite amusement 

 was to take in hand some early work and " f urrage up facts " as 

 he expressed it. Sometimes his notes assumed, eventually, the 

 shape of a concisely written, informing historical treatise. 

 Of such were his Hor^ses Past and Present, Farm Stock a 

 Hundred Years Ago, and Hounds in Old Days. In some 

 cases the text was supplied by his own observation or a current 

 interest of the time. The attention devoted to the breeding of 

 ponies for polo prompted him to investigate the history of our 

 native breeds, and set out the information he had collected 

 in Ponies Past and Present, subsequently republished as 

 Thoroughbred and Other Ponies. The South African War and 

 the difficulties with horseflesh gave him the text for his Small 

 Horses in Warfare. His mental activity was wonderful even 

 when his eightieth birthday had been passed ; the chance 

 remark would pass unnoticed at the time, but it fell on fertile 

 soil, and, it might be a month later, he would revert to the 

 subject and sketch the article or essay it had suggested to him. 



The instinct of the collector was highly developed in him, 

 and his tastes were catholic. At various periods of his life he 

 devoted attention to very various fields to find a passing 

 pleasure, for example in vakiable old snuff boxes or earthen- 

 ware jugs. Such collections were, in a sense, playthings ; their 

 turn came to be forgotten, though the old interest was quickly 

 stimulated by that of a visitor to whom they appealed. He 

 took lasting delight in assembling relics of past times, and he 

 possessed a singular variety of such articles, great and small : 

 spars for fighting cocks (he had been an ardent cocker in his 

 youth), the man-trap of the old-time game preserver, ancient 

 whips and horse gear, the sedan chair, the huge case-bottle 

 used by our coaching ancestors on their slow journeys, the 

 rude clip-holder for the ancient rushlight. It mattered little 

 what the object was, provided always it suggested the uses of a 

 bygone day, the thing was welcome. 



Another of his enduring tastes was for silver, principally in 

 the shape of old racing cups and statuettes. He had a famous 

 collection of race cups, many of them gems of the silversmiths' 

 art, and he added to them with careful discrimination. The 

 turf records of the early eighteenth century were less exactly 

 kept than they have been since, and the offer of an addition to 

 his collection was always a small event. Some relia])le friend 

 would be asked to go and see the ciip and copy the inscription, 

 antl then, if old Racing Calendars failed, county histories or 

 other sources of information must be searched to verify the 

 trophy. His was an inquiring mind, and he liked to know all 

 there was to know concerning his possessions. Thus, after his 

 firm had taken the Pantheon, he set to work to discover all 



