78 The Post and the Paddock. 



Bottom, which, with the grandfather of the Stephen- 

 sons as their trainer, and Samuel Chifney as jockey, 

 nobly upheld the prestige of the " buff and purple 

 stripes." Pratt had a large string of Lord Grosvenor's 

 at Hare Park ; and there was, too, no mean cluster of 

 trainers at the Six-mile Bottom. It was here that the 

 Prince had his stud-farm, which with the house an- 

 nexed passed as a gift into Colonel Leigh's hands, and 

 became memorable in Mr. Hunter's day as the birth- 

 place of the grey Gustavus ; and still later, of many 

 a young scion of the straight-thighed Partisan, whose 

 inamoratas might be seen working at the plough, till 

 within a month of foaling, on Lord Lowther's farm. 

 In Newmarket itself, Sir Frank Standish's stable was 

 among the foremost, and had, within the two previous 

 years, nailed the plates of two Derby winners, and 

 one Oaks winner, on its doors. Messrs. Panton and 

 Vernon, too, not only resided and kept private trainers 

 there, but the former was an equal enthusiast with 

 hound and horn, and hunted a part of the Cambridge- 

 shire and Essex countries. Although he had some 

 good racers in his time, he always said that his 

 Childers was the flying Abyssey-wood fox, who stood 

 before the hounds for five-and-twenty miles without a 

 check, and was pulled down, after running straight 

 along the A. R, within a few yards of the weighing- 

 house, as it strove in its death agony to rise the hill. 

 Crockford purchased his estate after his death ; but 

 as yet the pale flabby features and white " hay-wisp- 

 fashion" neckcloth of the great speculator were un- 

 known to fame. The colours of Sir Charles Bunbury 

 and Mr. Christopher Wilson, both of whom were in 

 turn " Fathers of the Turf," not unfrequently caught 

 Mr. Hilton's eye at the finish, and earned a still less 

 fleeting notice on the canvas of Stubbs. Ben Mar- 

 shall had not as yet set up his easel, and Robson had 

 not become the Leviathan trainer of Suffolk, but was 

 engaged to Sir F. Poole, at Lewes, and waxing greater 



