270 THE POST AND THE PADDOCK. 



to Sledmere himself, and was hailed by Lord Al- 

 thorp from his post-chaise on the road. Even in 

 Sir Tatton's early days (when he thought nothing 

 of riding to London to be measured for a new coat, 

 and walking eight miles before breakfast simply to 

 see his horse fed) he was always wont to walk by the 

 side of his hunter the greatest part of the way to 

 cover, and he still preserves his old practice, even at 

 eighty-five, twice a year, when he sets off at four 

 o'clock in the morning with his young horses to and 

 from the marshes. Yorkshiremen still proudly avow 

 that in handling young horses and hedging tools he 

 has no rival, let alone his quiet Quaker-like readiness 

 and terseness of retort, on such as venture to take a 

 liberty. How quiet his reproof to a young blood, 

 who " thought 3 ' the hounds were not so near, when 

 he jumped almost into the middle of them " Now 

 you know, Sir, you never thought at all." This horse- 

 leading trait reminds us of one in the late Sir 

 Charles Bunbury, who trained his horses in private 

 almost entirely under his own eye, and fearing lest 

 they might be nervous in public, frequently made 

 the lads (who were never allowed to use spurs or 

 anything but a small stick to them) wear his colours 

 when they cleaned them. The Suffolk baronet 

 latterly would never have his horses sweated or tried 

 on a Good Friday, as during a trial on one of these 

 anniversaries, both his horses fell and broke their 

 backs, and each of the jockeys got a fractured thigh. 

 Vivalda got big bad-mouthed stock, but as stout as 

 the day was long, and Knight of the Whistle bid 

 fair to tread in Cannon BalFs footsteps in Leicester- 

 shire, up to last season, when the Irishmen pur- 

 chased him. The Knight's stock are principally 

 roan chesnuts, white-legged and white-faced,, like 

 himself; and we doubt whether he ever got a bad 

 hunter, although the whole of them are a little short 

 in the back ribs. Despite this defect, they are ra- 



