SIR TATTON SYKES. 83 



Tatton was bom at Wheldrake, where his father, Sir Christopher, 

 then resided, on the 22nd of August, 1772, and Tatton was sent 

 with his brothers, Mark and Christopher, first to a tutor at Bishops- 

 thorpe and afterwards to Westminster. This was their first in- 

 troduction to London, and it was a cherished recollection with the 

 three that, after often lingering for that purpose at their tailor's 

 in Bolt Court, they once caught a glimpse of Dr. Johnson as he 

 handed a visitor to her carriage. Schooldays over, the youth was 

 sent to Brasenose, Oxford. He was then placed for a short time 

 in London with a firm of solicitors, Messrs. Atkinson and Farrar, 

 of Lincoln's-Inn-Fields, and when he was not indirectly foster- 

 ing his future Holmepierrepoint tastes among the sheep-skins 

 in the ofiice, as "The Druid" facetiously puts it (Sir Tatton 

 was afterwards an enthusiastic sheep breeder), he was dutifully 

 bearing the green bag after Mr. Farrar to Westminster Hall, or 

 to consultations at chambers, in one of which Erskine and the 

 two Scotts were engaged. Holroyd was then great as a special 

 pleader, Kenyon and Buller were on the Bench, and Thurlow's 

 tenure of the Great Seal was rapidly drawing to its close. Hullock 

 and Bayley were still hard-working " stufi"s," but it was Sir Tatton's 

 lot in after years to meet them both in their ermine, when, as 

 High Sherifif, it became his turn to drive them in state to open 

 the Assizes at York. It was while he was articled to Messrs. 

 Atkinson and Farrar that Sir Tatton walked fi-om London to Epsom 

 to see Eager's Derby, in 1791, starting at four on that June Thurs- 

 day and landing back at Lamb's, Conduit Street, at eleven at night. 

 Next year he rode down to see Buckle win it on John Bull, and 

 he never went to Epsom afterwards. Soon after this he was set to 

 learn the business of a country banker at Hull, and mightily 

 astonished his fellow-clerks by walking thence to his father's seat 

 at Sledmere, thirty-two miles, after the day's business was done, 

 on his first Saturday there, and repeating the feat on Monday 

 morning, arriving early at Hull, and perfectly fresh for the duties 

 of the desk. But a year or two later he performed a more re- 

 markable pedestrian feat than this. He had been smitten even 

 at that early age with a desire to have some pure Bakewells 

 from Mr. Sanday's flock, and after selecting half-a-score at 20 

 guineas a-piece, he met them subsequently at Lincoln, where they 

 arrived from Holmepierrepoint (Mr. Sanday's place) by waggon, 

 and drove them home in person, a three days' journey, to Barton. 

 He soon became a ram-letter, and September, 1861, was the 58th 

 anniversary of his show, whilst until he was upwards of eighty 

 he never missed his annual June ride into the Midlands to Burgess's, 

 Buckley's, and Stone's. The love of Leicesters always fought hard 

 for supremacy with that of thoroughbreds at Sledmere. It peeped 

 out in the naming of the bay colt " Holmepierrepoint," on which 

 Sim Templeman, in his seven-stone days, was beaten in a canter 

 at York by the dam of Charles XII. ; and the following amusing 



