228 THE POST AND THE PADDOCK. 



Londesboro's number at Ulleskelfe is rapidly increas- 

 ing. At present the Royal Hampton Court Stud 

 consists of twenty-two brood mares, which have cost 

 rnther more than 200 guineas each, and stand along 

 with nearly a score of Mr. Greville's, in along range 

 of paddocks, which extend nearly a mile down the 

 London-road. Cawston Paddocks, which the loves 

 of its present " dainty queue" Phryne, and her de- 

 parted Pantaloon have made so famous, with its 

 ivy-clad shooting lodge and the fox-covers of Elthiron 

 in the back-ground, and old Melbourne peeping 

 coyly of yore out of his mastiff-guarded box at visitors 

 from beneath his black- bullock- head escutcheon, was 

 a right pleasant sight for a summer's evening ; 

 but for a downright business, and not mere breeding 

 for the love or honour of the thing, Rawclifie Pad- 

 docks quite bear the palm. The company was 

 formed in 1850, and the Flying Dutchman went there 

 direct the day after he won his York match. The 

 capital is 25,000, and paid up within a few hun- 

 dreds ; and the value of the shares, three or four of 

 which are for sale, is .100 each. Thirteen hundred 

 and fifty acres on Rawcliffe Ings have been rented, 

 and box accommodation has been built for 157 

 horses. The number of men employed at the stud 

 alone is eleven, and the cart mares are all used for 

 breeding, although the last 10 guineas average for 

 half-bred yearlings by Burgundy and Connaught 

 Ranger was hardly encouraging. There were 53 lots 

 sold in all, at the 1855 sale, which realized 4,762 

 guineas; and the 29, in 1854 (when several were 

 sold by private contract at York Spring), brought 

 2,716 guineas. Last year they were more unlucky 

 and 100 guineas was the average. The Flying 

 Dutchman has been latterly a great hit for them, 

 and so was Chanticleer; but Hetman Platoff died 

 directly after he arrived there from Tickhill Castle. 

 They reckon their casualties at two in five ; and, on 



