THE COUNTRY AND THE HORSE REQUIRED. 243 



the great public schools, where the heads, hands, and heels of a legion of hard- 

 riding Dicks are ever at work for five months of the year, in transforming the 

 raw one hundred guinea Howdenite into the finished two hundred guinea 

 candidate for Horncastle. It is, however, to the dealers in this as in every other 

 country that they have to look for purchasers, as hunting men wall scarcely ever 

 bii}' from farmers, however well they may ride, and have to pay a handsome 

 sum extra for their whim. Horncastle Fair has long been the great Lincolnshire 

 carnival of horseflesh, and far the largest in England for made hunters. Sport- 

 ing foreigners are penetre's with its fame, and rush to see it and the sales of 

 blood yearlings at Doncaster, Avith as much energy as their agriculturists demand 

 to be led to ' de beetroot ' the instant they set foot from one of Ben Revett's 

 chaises, on their Tiptree shrine. We have it, in fact, on ' Scribbe's' authority, 

 tiiat an elderly German baron, not very long since, assured his English visitor, 

 when they had drunk to the death and memory of their last wild boar, that if 

 MOW he could only visit Horncastle Fair, he would die happy ! Dealers and 

 foreigners begin to be rife in its neighbourhood, about the oth of August, and 

 there are still some lingerers on the 2l8t. Baron Rothschild's agent rarel\' 

 comes, but purchases young horses, at all prices from £40 to £300, out of the 

 best stables in Yorkshire and Lincolnshire." 



Not many young hunters are brought into North 

 Lincolnshire now for "making," and fewer still are bred. 

 Mr. A. J. Brown, of Audleby and Doncaster, has by far 

 the best lot, the whole practically Irish bred, and he is one 

 of the biggest hunter-dealers in England. He has won a 

 great number of prizes in the principal show rings in 

 England, and his stables at Audleby, where the raw 

 material is turned into the finished hunter, are always 

 worth a visit. Mr. G. ]\Iarris, of Kirmington, and ]\Ir. W. 

 Wood, of Habrough, have generally some useful animals 

 to dispose of, and there are, of course, others to be picked 

 up, now here and now there, throughout the Hunt. 



In days gone by no names were better known " as 

 breeders of embryo Clinkers and Clashers " than those of 

 Welfit of Louth, Fowler of Kirton Grange, Greetham of 

 Stanifield Hall, the Slaters of Commeringham and North 

 Carlton, Bartholomew of Goltho, Nainby of Barnoldby, 

 and Chambers of Reasby Hall. 



The Pelhams, too, were always noted for their breed of 

 horses, and years ago the blood of Bay Barb and Brocklesby 

 Betty was something to be proud of in any part of England. 

 About the beginning of the century Lord Yarborough 

 bought a Sir Peter mare, a sister to Hermione, from Lord 



