246 The Post and the Paddock. 



Well may we hear the horses, and the men who rode 

 them, and raced them towards The Wrekin as their 

 gigantic winning-chair, still household words among 

 the *• proud Salopians " ! Those were the days when 

 Lord Hill " on Paddy of Paddies the wonder" ; John 

 Arthur Lloyd on Grenadier ; Smith Owen on Lop, or 

 " Banker so honest a trader, he pays draughts at sight 

 without any persuader " ; Lyster, " King of light 

 weights, on The Doe ; " and countless others who live 

 in the ballad, were all in the foremost flight ; and when 

 " The Curate rough-riding the Rector was seen," or 

 else " with his coat buttoned up, and his tongue very 

 still," earned the poet's praise as 



** First in the field and dashing away, 

 Taking all in his stroke on Gehazi the grey." 



Smoker, whose stock have often rather coarse heads 

 and not the best of hocks, belongs to Montgomery- 

 shire, where breeding has been rather flashy than 

 sound for some time past. Its horses were but little 

 tested at home, as their fine look attracted the dealers, 

 who pounced on them and made " swimmers" of them 

 forthwith ; and several of those that did stay on this 

 side the Channel had their weak places found out. 

 A well-informed writer in the Spoi^ting Review"^ states 

 the case much more favourably for the breeders ot 

 South Wales, or rather its three more western coun- 

 ties, which support five regular packs of fox hounds. 

 He considers that the best stamp of a Welsh hunter 

 is a well-bred compact horse, not exceeding fifteen- 

 two in height ; he must be very handy and clever at 

 on-and-off work, a good one up hill and through 

 dirt : a fast horse is always an advantage, but a per- 

 fect fencer is of more importance in this rough hilly 

 country, as there are too many days on which a Welsh 

 fox -hunter is employed in riding through interminable 



* January, 1857. 



