BLOOD MARES. 231 



to the stables, on whose doors the plates of Memnon, 

 Blacklock, Belshazzar, Barefoot, Buckingham, Alti- 

 sidora, Muta, and a host of other winners, still hang, 

 as silent tablets of the luck of other days. Black- 

 lock's box is still pointed out with especial reverence ; 

 and as the housekeeper guided us, candle in hand, 

 through the half-ruined Hall, we came on the skele- 

 ton room, where the coarse frame of the "terrible 

 brown" is encased, side by side with Muta. The 

 mare's off shoulder-blade still bore marks of the run- 

 ning sore, which no syringe could heal; and ere she 

 died, it had eaten its stealthy way right through the 

 bone. The strength of the pasturage and the beau- 

 tiful combination of hill and dale make these pad- 

 docks a perfect paradise for blood mares and foals. 

 The large field especially is dotted here and there 

 with wide-spreading chesnut-trees, to shade them 

 from the heat; and our attendant told us how of 

 yore the mares and foals would come dashing wildly 

 en masse down the hill, through the valley, and up 

 the opposite one, like a charge of Cossacks, till Mr. 

 Watt and his grooms fairly looked on trembling, lest 

 some of their brave little bits of Tramp, Blacklock, 

 or Lottery blood should be rolled head-over-heels 

 down the steep. The short-horns of a neighbouring 

 farmer quietly browse on it now ; but we would fain 

 hope that the thorough-bred traditions which still 

 linger fondly round it, will ere long be potent to 

 drive these intruders from the spot, and people it 

 with blood- stock, not inferior to those on which 

 John Jackson in the harlequin so often rode back in 

 triumph to scale. 



