226 The Post and the Paddock. 



four seasons. The measurement should, we think, be 

 got as much as possible by depth, as most hunting 

 men like a horse thin between the knees, which 

 makes it nearly as difficult for him to get rid of them 

 as to cast their own skin. Big coffin-heads generally 

 betoken a bad mouth and a tendency to pull hard, 

 and if they are not accompanied by a bold eye, the 

 majority of hunting men will never look at them. Be 

 the head large or small, it must always have plenty of 

 meaning in it, or it is heavy odds that the purchase 

 will be a sorry one, as far as jumping goes, and the 

 rider be obliged to come out with a telescope in his 

 pocket. 



The measuring mania rather brought the Melton 

 men to grief in one instance, when a well known 

 Leicestershire sportsman, whose portrait on " Old 

 Prince" appeared in the Royal Academy of 1844, im- 

 ported a little brown horse by Cannonball, and marked 

 exactly like his sire, out of Shropshire, to Melton, 

 where he was originally bred. He was first offered to 

 a noble earl for 200 guineas, but the reply was that 

 he was " a sweet park horse, but has not length enough 

 for Leicestershire." A similar answer arrived from 

 another lord, and he was offered thirdly to the bearer 

 of the white tape, who immediately whipped it out, 

 and expressed his astonishment that so old a sports- 

 man should recommend him " a mere weed." How- 

 ever, an afternoon fox of the right sort was found at 

 Owston Wood, and the httle fifteen-two "weed" took 

 six gates in succession in one lane. Luckily, " The 

 Squire" from the Pytcheley had come to the meet, 

 and as soon as they killed, he called out to his rider, 

 "My man! 150/. for your horse." And so the result 

 was that " the weed" had left for Northamptonshire in 

 less than twenty-four hours, with 200 guineas on his 

 head. During the following Croxton Park races, as a 

 main of cocks was being fought betv/een Sir Harry 

 Goodricke and Mr. George Walker, a letter written 



