55 



The accompanying portrait of Grey Diomed, 

 a son of Diomed, the winner of the first 

 Derby, in 1780, gives a good idea of the 

 racehorse of this period. Grey Diomed was 

 foaled in 1/85, and won many important 

 races between the years 1788 and 1792. 

 He was bred at Great Barton, Bury St. 

 Edmunds, by Sir Charles Bunbury. 



It was in 1780 that Mr. William Childe, 

 of Kinlet, " Flying Childe," introduced the 

 modern method of riding fast to hounds. 

 Prior to Mr. Childe's time, men rode to 

 hounds in a fashion we should consider slow 

 and over-cautious, timber being taken at a 

 stand; but once the superior excitement of 

 fast riding across country was realised, the 

 old, slow method soon disappeared. 



Though the Norfolk Hackney achieved 

 its fame through Blaze (foaled 1733), who 

 begat the original Shales, foaled in 1755, 

 and the foundations of this invaluable breed 

 were thus laid in George II.'s time, we 

 must have regard to the period during which 

 the breed achieved its celebrity both at home 

 and abroad, and that period is the long reign 

 of George III. 



The old system of conveying mails on 

 horseback, with its innumerable faults and 

 drawbacks, came to an end in George I II.'s 



