234 The Post and the Paddock, 



Sir Tatton Sykes has never fallen in with this notion 

 about height, and his friends always expect his plea- 

 sant " Too big, Sir ! too big /" when he looks over 

 anything much above fifteen-two. Charles XII., in 

 his very heyday, did not please him at all, but still he 

 stuck faithfully by Sleight-of-Hand, who was much 

 above his standard. To show how tastes differ, Mr. 

 Davis, the Queen's huntsman, who was a lighter man 

 and rather taller than Sir Tatton, once assured us 

 that he had been carried equally well to his hounds 

 by horses of all heights, from fourteen-three to sixteen- 

 two ; but that from fifteen-three to sixteen-two was 

 his fancy size. Even on the subject of tails, the 

 hunting men used to take issue. In Mr. Osbaldeston's 

 day it was all the fashion at Melton to keep long tails 

 on the hunters, a practice which he held in very 

 great contempt. " Gallop on, long-tails, yoiill soon 

 come back!' used to be his regular saying, if they 

 got away before him ; and " Where are the fijie long- 

 tails now f was his sarcastic inquiry at the close of 

 many a run. 



Among great horse-dealers, Messrs. Elmore, R. 

 Dyson, and Tilbury (who has had as many as 200 

 hunters for hire) once held sway, but Mr. ColHns, 

 of Mount-street, Lambeth, has since become by far 

 the largest purchaser of hunters at Horncastle. The 

 Lincolnshire farmers generally get into the habit of 

 doing business with one dealer, and Mr. Collins will 

 buy about seventy from them during the Horncastle 

 month, the best of which range from 160/. to 200/., 

 and occasionally higher. Many of these do not get 

 to the fair to be sold, as formerly, but are purchased 

 privately, and join the main string at a certain place 

 of rendezvous ; but scarcely half of them reach his 

 London stables, as he now has a show of them both 

 at Newark and Barnet, where purchasers and brother 

 dealers attend to cull. He always buys according to 

 what is required for the particular season ; and if the 



