86 THE POST AND THE PADDOCK. 



stripes." Pratt had a large string of Lord Grosvenor^s, 

 at Hare Park ; and there was, too, no mean cluster 

 of trainers at the Six-mile Bottom. It was here that 

 the Prince had his stud-farm, which with the house 

 annexed passed as a gift into Colonel Leigh's hands, 

 and became memorable in Mr. Hunter's day as the 

 birthplace of the grey Gustavus ; and still later, of 

 many a young scion of the straight-thighed Partisan, 

 whose inamoratas might be seen working at the 

 plough, till within a month of foaling, on Lord Low- 

 therms farm. In Newmarket itself, Sir Frank 

 Stan dishes stable was among the foremost, and had, 

 within the two previous years, nailed the plates of 

 two Derby winners, and one Oaks winner, on its 

 doors. Messrs. Panton and Vernon, too, not only 

 resided and kept private trainers there, but the 

 former was an equal enthusiast with hound and horn, 

 and hunted a part of the Cambridgeshire and Essex. 

 countries. Although he had some good racers in his 

 time, he always said that his Childers was the flying 

 Abyssey-wood fox, who stood before the hounds for 

 five- and- twenty miles without a check, and was 

 pulled down, after running straight along the A. F., 

 within a few yards of the weighing-house, as it strove 

 in its death agony to rise the hill. Crockford pur- 

 chased his estate after his death; but n ,s yet the 

 pale flabby features and white " hay-wisp-fashion " 

 neckcloth of the great speculator were unknown to 

 fame. The colours of Sir Charles Bunbury and Mr. 

 Christopher Wilson, both of whom were in turn 

 "Fathers of the Turf/' not unfrequently caught Mr. 

 Hilton^s eye at the finish, and earned a still less-fleet- 

 ing notice on the canvas of Stubbs. Ben Marshall 

 had not as yet set up his easel, and Kobson had not 

 become the Leviathan trainer of Suffolk, but was 

 engaged to Sir F. Poole, at Lewes, and waxing greater 

 and greater after Waxy's victory at Epsom ; Lord 

 Clermont never tired of looking into his own stables, 

 where Hammond's Bank now stands; and Perren 



