52 THE POST AND THE PADDOCK. 



party want to get off an engagement, they should 

 not be able to do so unless by a six months' no- 

 tice, commencing from the Monday in the Craven 

 week. 



Sir Tatton Sykes is now the father of the gentle- 

 men-rider craft, and though it is long since he 

 mounted it, on Kutusoff, or "All Heart and No Peel/' 

 &c., he thought nothing in his day of putting a silk 

 jacket into his pocket, and riding seventy or eighty 

 miles to a meeting, to oblige a friend. His great 

 characteristic was his patience, which he carried, if 

 anything, to an extreme. On one occasion, we believe 

 that he was beaten for the first two heats on a mare 

 of Mr. Kir by 's, and thought it was not worth while 

 starting for the third. As, however, the lad who 

 had the charge of the mare was so sorely distressed 

 at this resolve, and almost went on to his knees to 

 him, exclaiming, " Do mak a bit more running, Sir 

 Tatton ; I'meer can run for a week, I knaw we'll beat 

 -em yet? the baronet kindly relented, and acting on 

 the hint, won the two next heats cleverly. Mr. Os- 

 baldeston (of whom Bill Scott left on record that 

 " he rode like an angel"), although he will never see 

 seventy again, rode wonderfully well till a very late 

 period, in spite of the twice-broken leg ; but Lord 

 Wilton confines himself to Croxton Park. General 

 Gilbert, who was brilliant in the saddle 10 the last in 

 India, sleeps his last long sleep under a granite column, 

 on the left-hand side as you walk up the Kensal 

 orreen Cemetery; and now that so many gallant 

 spirits have been swept down " in their majestic march 

 up to the Russian gun/' there are only about fifteen; 

 among whom the names of White, Williams, Little, 

 &c., suggest the remembrance of something more 

 than mere flat-racing ability ; to whom a trainer 

 will resign his horse without a pang, and whom bet- 

 ting men will dare to back. 



