32 The Scropes of Danby-on-Yore. 



Grosvenor Roll, as to the right of the Grosvenor to carry as his 

 arms azure a bend or, and in which the Scrope gained his 

 point ; an aged knight, Sir William Aton, gave evidence that 

 he had heard his father say " that Sir William Scrope was the 

 ablest tourneyer (performer in a tournament) of all their 

 country and that he always tourneyed in the arms azure a bend 

 or and had been a good esquire, and a good servant, and a 

 good bohourdeoiir (nder \n 2i ']oust) . In the famous ballad of 

 Flodden Field are found the lines : 



Next whom in place was nexed near 



Lord Scrope of Bolton, stern and stout, 



On horseback who had not his peer. 

 No Englishman Scots more did doubt. 



Still later, two more Scropes, from old diaries in the possession 

 of the late Mr. Scrope (which now, unfortunately, cannot be 

 found), seem to have been hard men across country after 

 hounds, whilst the next Simon Scrope hunted his own harriers. 

 His son, in turn, was well known all around Danby as preferr- 

 ing to ride a four-year-old when turned eighty than more staid 

 horses ; whilst again, his son, the late Simon Scrope, was, 

 perhaps, the best rider ever known in the Bedale country, and 

 old folks even yet tell wondrous stories of his prowess in the 

 field. 



We find Mr. Simon Scrope, in his diary, extolling the 

 blood of two horses, ' Cade ' and ' Matchem.' We have an 

 old saying in Yorkshire, " Ya knaw breedin' will tell," and this 

 is applicable to persons as well as animals, as one finds all 

 along the line in many such families as the Scropes, whose 

 support of the Turf, the hound and the horn descends from 

 generation to generation. 



