Gentlemen Riders 



Mr. E. C. CLAYTON 



For many years past there has been no more familiar name in 

 the racing and hunting world than that of the good sportsman 

 who forms the subject of this chapter, popularly known to a 

 host of friends as " Uncle " Clayton. 



Born in 1837, at Benwell Hall, Northumberland, in which 

 county his family — who, by the way, can show an unbroken 

 line of descent from the Plantagenets — were resident for many 

 generations, Mr. Clayton in due course went to Harrow, and 

 after that to Oxford, where, in i860, he took his degrees; and 

 having married a sister of the late Mr. T. T. Drake, the popular 

 squire of Shardeloes, settled down in the Bicester country, with 

 which hounds, then under the mastership of his brother-in-law, 

 and the adjoining packs, he was a constant follower for fourteen 

 years, when he removed to Oakham, in Rutlandshire, where he 

 has resided ever since. 



Here he devoted himself with enthusiasm to the study of 

 the thoroughbred horse, and, being a splendid horseman to 

 boot, he soon began to be looked upon as quite invincible in 

 hunters' races on the flat all over the country. 



Norma, on whom he won the Belvoir Stakes in 1866, Idle 

 Girl, Creslow (dam of Winslow), Diana, Playfellow, Whitenose, 

 Tonio, Lord Ronald (sire of Master Kildare), Consolation, 

 Oriel, Broadway, and Red Comyn were all ridden by him at 

 one time or another. Zoedone, too, belonged to him when 

 sne ran third for the Liverpool, and won the Grand Annual 

 at Warwick, in 1882, being ridden on both occasions by 

 that incomparable horseman, Captain Arthur Smith, after 

 which she was sold to Prince — then Count — Charles Kinsky, 



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