6O LIGHT HORSES : BREEDS AND MANAGEMENT. 



some men were carried to hounds by their pure-bred Cleve- 

 lands in the latter part of the eighteenth and the commence- 

 ment of the present century ; and although hounds did not go 

 quite so fast then as they do now, the country was principally 

 undrained, and consequently a " bit of blood " would be 

 required to get through the deep ground in the style which the 

 old stories tell us these Cleveland Bays did. 



Probability points to a thoroughbred named Traveller as 

 having had something to do with imparting fresh quality and 

 courage to the Cleveland Bay. On many of the cards and 

 bills of the older stallions the pedigree is traced back to a 

 certain Old Traveller, and then stops. There is no pedigree 

 of the Old Traveller given, and as is usual with old stallion 

 bills, the language is obscure, and the identification of horses 

 named becomes a matter of difficulty. But the constant re- 

 currence of the name of Old Traveller in the old bills would 

 seem to point out that he was some well-known and highly- 

 appreciated horse ; and a thoroughbred horse of that name 

 a thoroughbred horse that was afterwards to make a great 

 reputation at the stud did travel in the neighbourhood of 

 Yarm, in the middle of the eighteenth century, serving mares 

 at a nominal fee. And it must be borne in mind that Yarm 

 was in the very heart of the country where Cleveland Bays 

 most flourished. In after years many famous horses were 

 bred within a few miles of what was then one of the most 

 important towns in the Vale of Cleveland, a town whose horse 

 fair, though now decayed and of little importance, was at one 

 time one of the most important in the north one, moreover, 

 at which Cleveland Bays were to be found in greater numbers 

 than at any other fair, excepting Northallerton. Taking these 

 facts into consideration, together with the fact that a thorough- 

 bred horse was serving mares in the vicinity at a nominal fee 

 always an important affair in a country district, and more 

 especially so in those days and it is not difficult to imagine 

 how this Old Traveller might have done much in imparting 

 quality to the produce of the Cleveland Bay mares of the 



