Lovers of the Horse 



17 



exists. I'lifditiinately it was literal interpretation, not literal rviilciire. that governed 

 the nullifying decisions of the courts, both at Toronto and Ottawa, and it was the letter, 

 and not tlie spirit, of the law that it was somewhat inconsistently ruled must prevail. 

 Thus the good intentions of the now dead Nestor of the Canaih'an tuif went hv the 

 board. 



Although many leading men of the turf in the United States as well as in Canada, 

 including 1) ]) Withers, A. J. Ca.ssatt, J. G. Lawrence, Galway, Hunter and other 

 respected old-timers, were all ])leased to consult and chat on horse matters with the then 

 Master of the ^'ansittart Farm at Eastwood, racing and race-horse breeding were not 

 the only sports or pastimes in which the deceased manifested enthusiastic interest. At 

 running and jumping, in his college and uiiiveisity days, he was expert. He was also a 

 good oarsman and an excellent authority on rowing. But it was cricket that, in outdoor 

 games, was his idol. At one time he wrote as many articles probably on Britain's 

 national game as on the horse and its attachments. "A man isn't a hor.se because 

 he is born in a stable, but perhaps the fact that I was l)rought up at Ilambledon, in 

 Hampshire, the birthplace of cricket, may have h^l Mr Hall to think that I was born 

 a cricketer," he wrote in "Sixty Years of Canadian Cricket," a formidable and ambitious 

 volume, for which [Messrs. J. E. Hall, of Toronto, and R. O. ]McCullough, of Gait, 

 were responsible. "A century ago." ^[r. Patteson went on to write, "the Hambledon 

 eleven could have beaten any twenty-two in England. Jn tluit Hampshire village, full 

 of sj)ortsmen who ranked with the best in Britain. 1 j)layed many a match." He then 

 tells how he was a postmaster at Merton before he was postmaster at Toroido. It was in 

 1858 that ]\Ir. Patteson first |)layed in Toronto. His place was behind the wickets, and 

 as a wicketkeeper no man In Canada of his time was his e<|ual. He captained the 

 Canadian elevens which ])layed the United States in 1859 and 18(50, the first match 

 being on the old McCaul and College grounds in Toronto, when the "Yanks" (ten 

 were English) won by four wick(>fs, and the second at Hoboken, X. J., where the "Yanks," 

 the only one of whom whet was native-born being of the illustrious family of Newhall, 

 won again, this time by five wickets. In 187'2 Mr. Patteson was the leading spirit in 

 bringing the H .V Fitzgerahl and W. G. Grace team to Canada. 



An unfortunate ru])ture prevented Mr. Patteson from enjoying the sport of hunting, 

 but for many years he was a member of the Hunt Club, and to the last took his dailv 

 rides on horseback thi-ough High Paik Alas, he w ill never do so more, and it will be 

 many years, it is to be feared, before his like will be looked on again, for so straightfor- 

 ward, so ready aufl so versatile a man is as seldom met with as frost on the level in 

 the tropics. 



m'^^^m 



