272 THE POST AND THE PADDOCK. 



his grandson, and was bred along with an elder bro- 

 ther, fifteen-three, and with bay and black legs like 

 himself, in Dalkeith Park. Norman is one of those 

 wonderfully docile handy horses, who seems as if he 

 " could canter round a cabbage," and owing to their 

 stoutness, the pair have generally gone by the name, 

 in the Hunt, of Stuffie Major and Stuffie Minor. 

 Some call them "Hufty;" but, if Jamieson's Scot- 

 tish Dictionary be any authority, they pay them a 

 very ill compliment by such a nomenclature. Car- 

 dinal Puff 's stock were rather few in number, but his 

 hunters were much liked ; and Melbourne's half- 

 bred stock is generally coarse and overgrown. The 

 Ratcatchers have been successful, and Theon's stock 

 are generally very true-made and handsome, but we 

 do not like the style of the Liverpools we have seen 

 at the cover- side, as they rather partake of his ten- 

 dency to weak loins, a fault not observable in the 

 stock of British Yeoman or Idas, which are realizing 

 high prices. Mundig's stock are nearly all chesnuts, 

 many of them shot with white hairs, and have fine 

 size and power, being in fact seldom below sixteen 

 hands. Although their sire's temper was bad enough 

 at times, they do not seem to share it, and some of 

 the highest class ones have belonged to Lord Henry 

 Bentinck. They take to fences as naturally as duck- 

 lings to a pond, andCranebrook did very little towards 

 supplying their sire's stall in Northamptonshire, 

 where Vortex is now in great force. The fashion of 

 a landlord giving prizes to their farmers for the best 

 hunting young stock might be said to have originated 

 in this county ; and about sixty years ago, a Duke 

 of Grafton not only gave them, but added a " fiver 5 ' 

 for the farmer's son, under a certain age, who could 

 ride best. The Duke, whose picture as he appeared 

 in his " cock and pinch hat " on the Steyne at 

 Brighton, at the beginning of the century, is well- 

 known to old collectors, used to station himself 



