Breeding of Hunters. 243 



property about the time he bought Sam, who tailed 

 at the stud as much as he did in his racing career 

 after the Derby, and, with the exception of rather 

 twisted forelegs, a defect which was especially ob- 

 servable in Mr. Lindow's great Melton hunter The 

 Clipper (who always went to cover in boots, and led 

 by a man on a pony), a more gentlemanly blood-like 

 style of horse has been rarely seen, and his stock, al- 

 though not big, preserved all his quality. Brigliadoro 

 was also from the Ludlow side ; and Mr. Anderson, 

 senior, as well as George Underhill, had always a great 

 notion of his slashing but short-legged hunters. It is 

 on record of these two admirable judges of horseflesh, 

 that they agreed to price seventeen which the latter 

 had in his sale stables, and when they compared their 

 estimates, Mr. Anderson's was actually the largest by 

 I5/., and he accordingly took to the horses in a lot. 

 This story is perfectly authentic, and has scarcely a 

 paralled in horse-dealing annals. " Old George's " 

 especial fancy, however, was his own Strephon, by 

 Reubens, and at one time this horse, who was bought 

 in the evening of his days by Lore! Hill, Champion 

 by Selim, and Mr. Wheeler's Snowdon, who latterly 

 became quite white, were the great county rivals. 

 Strephon's fame has lasted the longest, and the hunt- 

 ing-men still swear by his name, when the sprig-tailed, 

 light-quartered, and thin-thighed Snowdonites are 

 almost forgotten. The latter were always overrated, 

 and the best of them, to our mind, were a grey mare 

 of Colonel Biddulph's, and a grey horse, whose flying 

 jumps became so noted, that a hard-riding divine 

 christened him " Jumping Jack." Mr. Joseph Clay, 

 of Sutton, rode him in the front rank with the Shrop- 

 shire for two seasons ; and he was latterly in Mr. 

 Smith Owen's hands when he divided the country 

 with Lord Hill ; and gained the reputation of being 

 the best horse in the stud, by the style in which, de- 

 spite of his lack of speed and not very sound legs, he 



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