254 Saddle and Sirloin . 



most rural and quietest country retreat I know, like 

 the bird that flees to the hill to be at rest." He 

 would saunter for hours down that glen to his wonted 

 bench beneath the elm near the cottages. There he 

 would sit and sketch, as his fancy took him, the elm, 

 ash, larch, beech, willow, elderberry, or Lombardy 

 poplar in Pit's planting, or Beck's, just across the 

 little brook. His walk seldom extended beyond a 

 mile, to the common below Riding's Plantation, which 

 Lord Middleton's know so well. He mourned over 

 the pulling down of the old church — a very favourite 

 subject, as he did whenever any ancient houses were 

 cleared away in York, and he lost another bit of 

 colour in the tiles. Sometimes he would gather 

 flowers to copy indoors after tea, which, with all the 

 eccentricity of genius, he would insist upon making 

 for himself, putting cold water in to preserve the 

 aroma. There are many proud family relics of the 

 past in that parlour — the silver cup with " Success to 

 Fox-hunting" on it, the goldsmith's racing cups in 

 their quaint leather cases, and the goblet with horses' 

 heads for handles which the Marquis of Rockingham 

 gave his jockey Singleton for his riding of Bay Malton 

 — and among them, Etty's painting of a pheasant, and 

 some equally vigorous heads, will always be ranked as 

 a memento of a very happy friendship, which only 

 ended with his life. 



A cry went forth some years since, that Langton 

 Wold was doomed, and that Whitewall and the other 

 training stables would shortly be desolate. Old 

 Maltonians might well say that the site of their 

 pleasant little town might be ploughed over and sown 

 with salt, if their four trainers were to be thus driven 

 into exile. Things at one time seemed gloomy 

 enough ; but happily a compromise was effected. 

 The racecourse, over which the Brothers Scott tried 

 many a winner, is now in turnips or white crops ; the 

 little stand is transmuted into a farm building, and 



