Sir Tatton Sykes. 233 



in the paddocks, so as to find out whether they were 

 roarers. " Send me all the Grey Mourns family, Sir 

 Tatton" were his words when the grey turned out so 

 well, but he tired of them when Grey Milton disap- 

 pointed him so sorely. While the grey was in his 

 zenith his lordship extended his love to everything of 

 Comus blood, and gave Sir Tatton 750 guineas for 

 three young hunters unbroken. Of Grey Momus he 

 was wont to say that " nothing put him amiss ; he was 

 equally fit for a harness horse, hunter, or racer — his 

 only fault was not winning the Derby." The Sledmere 

 mares did not average above fifteen-one-and-a-half, 

 and many of them looked mere ponies in the stable. 

 They had been so little handled that they were very 

 nervous about having their heads touched, and several, 

 we are told, died from their own violence in the stable, 

 when they left Sledmere. They were in fact pure 

 children of the prairie. 



There were too many of them, and hence no stud 

 lived so hard out of doors. When grass was very 

 scarce they had hay, varied at times oy oats and 

 chopped straw. Only two sets of twins were reared, 

 and yet the Sir Hercules mare, which suckled her own, 

 was not allowed any corn, and was put in Mr. Hill's 

 field that they might not favour her. Instead of re- 

 ducing, Sir Tatton kept increasing his stock of brood 

 mares ; and unaccountable as it might seem, while he 

 had some 320 head of horse stock, including hacks, 

 in his stables and his paddocks, he would never keep 

 a pair of carriage horses, but hired post-horses from 

 Malton, and latterly the Sledmere Inn. At first he 

 did not give a long price for his stallions, and Hamp- 

 ton and Sleight-of-Hand only cost him about 300/. 

 each. Hampton, after whom the Home Paddock 

 was called " Hampton Court," left something 

 more than his name on the shed. He was 

 rather undersized, but he got his stock full of 

 quality. The paddock, into which you might see 



