28 THE POST AND THE PADDOCK. 



strings exercise on the High Moor, whose surface is 

 composed of beautiful mossy peat. A lofty pillar 

 stands at one end of it, to mark the spot where Bay 

 Bolton was honourably buried in his shoes ; but the 

 grave of " Amato, 1843," in Sir Gilbert Heathcote's 

 grounds, near Epsom, with its little iron railing, sur- 

 mounted by many a gilded fleur-de-lis, shaded by 

 lofty chesnut trees, and within earshot of the yearly 

 thunder-clap which tells that another name has been 

 entered on the Derby scroll, by the side of the " Ve- 

 locipede pony/ 5 is the neatest specimen of a horse's 

 tomb which the Turf can press upon Mr. Buskin's 

 notice. 



Still we look upon Hambleton as the best train- 

 ing ground in Yorkshire, and Ilsley as the best in the 

 South. Some of the Newmarket trainers fancy the 

 Bury or the Warren Hills, while as many are faithful 

 to the heath. There never has been a tan-gallop at 

 Newmarket; and in default of one, the lime-kiln- 

 gallop on the left side of the Bury road is generally 

 resorted to during a drought. A ploughed one has 

 at last been achieved, so we may look for tan here- 

 after. The best country tan-gallop we know of is 

 Wadlow's, at Stanton, which is about one-and-a- 

 quarter miles round, and beautifully situated at the 

 foot of Lizzard Wood, a favorite meet in the Albrigh- 

 ton Hunt. No wonder that old Alonzo, our ten- 

 year-old Turf Nestor, is always ready for his spring 

 work. Veteran trainers have told us that to their 

 eyes not two horses in a thousand gallop exactly alike, 

 and we have known them detect their old pupils 

 years after by the test (one great mystery was revealed 

 this way) when their names have been changed, and 

 every other trace of identity purposely concealed; 

 while a great Boston character, on the contrary, once 

 sold his mare at Horncastle in the morning, and 

 bought her again in cool blood at night for a new 

 one ! The severest four-mile gallop we ever saw 



