284 THE POST AND THE PADDOCK. 



powers were still under a bushel. At TattersalFs in 

 May 1856, eleven out of one stud averaged 283J gui- 

 neas ; and in one week of May 1857, eight top prices 

 from five studs averaged 305J guineas, though the 

 average was enormously swelled by Lord Stamford's 

 560 guinea purchase of Mr. A. Thomson's splendid 

 sixteen-two bay Maximus by Cotherstone, who carried 

 him so splendidly in his 1 h. 30 m. Claydon's Wood 

 run. Thirteen at the Quorn sale just averaged 294 

 guineas, thanks to the frost. We have seldom seen a 

 lot of horses with better backs, quarters, and shoulders, 

 than the late Sir Richard Sutton's, but many of 

 them seemed to have remarkably plain heads, a remark 

 which does not apply to the Milton hunting stud. The 

 360-guinea Shankton was originally sold by Mr. Pratt 

 to Sir Richard for 80, when he was rising six, 

 and a five-pound note extra if he turned out well. 

 He is an Irish horse, perhaps a trifle short, and with 

 not very nice legs, but very fine in all his other 

 points. Somerby was so great in his jumping, that 

 his old Leicestershire friends predicted of him that 

 " he would jump two fields at once" when he was 

 once set going across Cheshire, and we have perhaps 

 never stood behind a horse in that stable with 

 greater pleasure. Freney was also after our own 

 heart, while MalakhofT was a magnificent sixteen- 

 one fellow, and quite the fastest and finest-actioned 

 animal in the stud. He is Irish bred, and was bought 

 at York, under another name, for 130 in 1854, and 

 gradually rose the gamut to 400 guineas, at which 

 price he passed into Sir Richard's hands, with the 

 assurance that he only wanted a couple of falls to 

 make him perfect ; but his lamented owner was never 

 on his back in a run. As far as we can hear, 

 the horses, with the exception of Mr. Richard 

 Sutton's (the average for whose five best only 

 fell from 328 guineas to 298 guineas, when they 

 came up to TattersalFs last June), have as a lot 



