94 COVERT-SIDE SKETCHES. 



money can buy — whereas a great portion of the Lincolnshire 

 farmers are on young raw horses learning their business, and 

 requiring plenty of pluck and horsemanship to make them hold 

 their place in a run without coming on their heads and roll- 

 ing their riders in the mud. In no county is the practice so 

 universal of mahing horses as in Lincolnshire, especially this 

 side of it ; and there is scarcely a farmer to be found who has 

 not two or three promising young horses in his stable that will, 

 as their education becomes complete, be passed on, and their 

 places supplied by more young ones. I fancy so many are not 

 now bred in the country as formerly, but there are a few 

 still produced, and many of the landlords keep a good sire for 

 the use of their tenants and neighbours. When I was last at 

 Brocklesby, they had two or three there, and Mr. Heneage, of 

 Hainton, in the South Wold country, generally has a useful one. 

 Talking of breeding, I may here correct an error in regard to 

 the celebrated Lottery, no doubt the best horse that ever ran 

 over a county. It was generally supposed, and has been often 

 stated that he was bred by Mr. Jackson, of Whitecross, near 

 Beverley, in the Holderness country. It was not so, however, 

 as a Dr. Jackson bred him at Stamford, in Lincolnshire, and gave 

 him, when very young, to his nephew Mr. Jackson — hence the 

 mistake. 



The stables at Brocklesby are always well supplied, as may be 

 imagined, with good class horses ; and not a few that have gone 

 there as cub-hunters have been picked up at the annual sales and 

 afterwards become hunters of note ; a fact that will give some 

 idea of the way the men are mounted in the regular season. The 

 stables themselves are quite a sight, and it is a great treat to a 

 sportsman to walk round them on a winter's evening, when the 

 gas is lighted. Since Lord Yarborough's death, Mmrod Long has 

 left, and the present huntsman is Alfred Thatcher, who was for 

 many years first whip there, and then went to hunt the Bedale. 

 JSTo fitter man could have been found as Long's successor, as, in 

 addition to the character he has earned with hounds, he knows 



