Sir Tat ton Sykes. 241 



slashing in the afternoon. Sir Tatton was always a 

 quiet rider, as some men count riding, and if he liked 

 to see Bill Scott on Ainderby and the rest go along, 

 he never cared more than once to try and follow 

 "that terrible man, Mr. Ridsdale." A few years 

 before his death he appeared at the cover side in a 

 new scarlet coat, and when he was warmly congratu- 

 lated on the omen, he replied that he was wearing it 

 strictly under protest from her ladyship, who thought 

 him too old to kill foxes. 



For hunting he never really cared, and although very 

 cool and a capital judge of pace, he rode too long to 

 finish well on the flat. The " orange body and purple 

 satin sleeves and cap" have been in abeyance since he 

 wore them at Beverley. He liked best schooling a young 

 horse, and never was man more patient and gentle with 

 them. His best young one was generally chosen for 

 the Leicestershire ram journeys, and then most of his 

 day's ride was done, when other people were in their 

 beds. He never failed to get off and lead in his horse 

 for the last mile. A great hunting maxim of his was 

 " Give your servants good horses, and they wont abuse 

 them." Eight or nine years before his death he gave 

 up going to Leicestershire, and in fact he did not care 

 for the journey after his old huntsman Tom Carter 

 died. He really received his own death-stroke two 

 years before his death. The road between Sledmere 

 and Fimber was being lowered, and he had worked 

 very hard in his shirt sleeves at breaking stones. 

 " Richard" took him his ale and sandwich for lun- 

 cheon, and he went out of the sun, and sat down on a 

 tree root in the plantation to eat it, and there fell fast 

 asleep : and the draught brought on a chill which he 

 never got over. 



When Tom died, his master was no longer seen 

 coming, all dusty, down Hall Gate' on the Doncaster 

 Monday, from a twelve hours' ride by Booth Ferry, 

 but he quietly adopted the rail. In fact, he had no 



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