1 20 The Post and the Paddock. 



Turf, but luck attended him in his last 500 guineas 

 matches, as his opponent's horse (Warrior) broke 

 down while winning in the first, and Lord Darlington 

 paid to him with Trafalgar (who had beaten Mr. 

 Watt's Shuttlecock in a 1000 guineas match that year) 

 in the second. He had, however, long passed his meri- 

 dian when he kept open house for a fortnight at Blyth 

 Hall, on the occasion of the Prince of Wales and the 

 Duke of Clarence's Yorkshire visit in 1806. Even 

 then the title-deeds had departed from him, in spite 

 of Sancho's and Staveley's St. Leger victories in the 

 two preceding years, and he only kept possession of 

 the Hall by virtue of a friendly stipulation to that 

 effect. It was a " finish" in every sense of the word, 

 and the Prince was said to be the only one who 

 walked up to bed without help each night. The little 

 table on which the two flirted long and deeply, with 

 the elephant's tooth, is still preserved as a relic in 

 Doncaster ; and when this melancholy wake of his 

 departed treasure had ceased, MelHsh turned his back 

 on Blyth, and resided, whenever he was in the coun- 

 try, at Hodsack Priory, a portion of his estate which 

 was entailed. Shortly afterwards he married, and 

 devoted himself principally to farming and shorthorns, 

 a pursuit in which the late Charles Champion, of 

 Blyth, a very famous breeder, was his principal 

 Mentor. Mr. Rudd, the vicar of Hodsack, was also 

 very intimate with him, and, as far as the eye of 

 man could scan him, no one tried more earnestly or 

 prayerfully to atone in maturer years for the follies 

 of his spring. His hour-glass had, however, nearly 

 run out, and he died in 18 18 of pulmonary con- 

 sumption, when he had barely reached his thirty-sixth 

 birthday. 



