Sir Tatton Sykes. 243 



that he might, perhaps, go to the three thousand 

 reserve for Fandango. With an endurance abso- 

 lutely miraculous for a man of his years, he used to 

 stand each day at the sales and races for nearly 

 seven hours on a stretch, and shook hands with scores 

 of people who claimed acquaintance, and whom, he 

 said, he had never seen to his knowledge. However, 

 he had a good-humoured word for each ; and no 

 one was more ready. The card and list women 

 always lay in wait for him ; and the colloquies 

 between them, all claiming a vested interest in his 

 custom, and appealing to him if it wasn't so, must 

 have cost him many an extra shilling to settle 

 amicably when "you ladies are so very quarrelsome /" 



1868 with the Royal in aid, he made 140 guineas in the show-yards. 

 Bob Brignall was in great force as he opened door after door, and told 

 his chestnuts' story. There stood the five-year-old Julius, who never 

 ran, but won in shows ; and Belinda, a small Orpheus hack, which has 

 won as a lady's horse both at Wetherby and Scarborough and London ; 

 but Don John was the crack of the stable. His head is a little plain, 

 but his quarters are beautiful, and taking him throughout, we have seen 

 few three-year-old hunters like him. As a four-year-old, he beat the 

 almost invincible Topstall and all the hunters in the yard for the Royal 

 Gold Medal at Manchester. He is by Angelus, from Whitefeet by 

 Codrington. Emperor's dam was purchased from Mr. Anne without a 

 pedigree. Emperor IV. by Angelus, now a four-year-old, is at How- 

 sham, and is a chestnut, like nearly all his kinsfolk, and full sixteen 

 hands high. Emperor I. was a bay, and was sold to Mr. Little Gilmour 

 for three hundred guineas. He was hunted at Melton for eight seasons, 

 and was shot last spring. He was by Record, the sire of many good 

 hunters, and Sir George's eldest son rode him for some time, before he 

 (Mr. Gilmour) had him. Emperor II. was a bay by Orpheus ; Mr. 

 James Hall bought him from Sir George for 300 guineas, and he was 

 put up for sale at York, and Mr. Chaplin gave 400 guineas for him. 

 He won his first race for the "all rose," to wit, the National Steeple- 

 chase at Wetherby, whose fine scope of course and large fences suited 

 him to a nicety. Emperor III. was by Cock Robin, a horse of Mr. 

 George Payne's, by Chanticleer dam by Charles XII. Mr. Chaplin 

 gave 400 guineas for him, and he won the same race at Bedford. Sir 

 George also bred Rosamond, the ten-year-old mare which was sold at 

 the late Sir Charles Slingsby's sale for 430 guineas. Caradon I. by 

 Orpheus is a crack hunter of Mr. Hall's, and the hero of a very great 

 day ; and Caradon II. is full of promise, and has taken a head prize at 

 the Yorkshire Show. 



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