Breeding of Hunters, 2 69 



he had become quite scaly from surfeit. The Infant, 

 a chestnut horse nearly seventeen hands high, was 

 the biggest Mr. Lockley ever rode. He bought him 

 originally from Lord Foley at Whitley Court, and 

 sold him, with his usual luck, to Lord Edward Mostyn 

 lor 450 guineas. Lord Alvanley, who now rests, after 

 his hard-riding and jovial days, in a pleasant little 

 grave of bay and cypress near the north entrance of 

 the Brompton Cemetery, also stuck at no price ; and 

 whenever he had given a very long sum for one, he 

 was always excessively hard upon him for the first 

 i&\Y days. A friend once asked him what on earth 

 could have made him go out of his line to have a shy 

 at the widest part of the Wissendine, and all his reply 

 was, '' Whath is the uth of giving 700 guineas for a 

 hoth, if he's not to do more than other hothes .? " 

 After losing 20,000/. in St. James's-street, he gaily 

 spoke of himself as being only " a little crippled ; " 

 and it was in the enthusiasm of a steeple-chase 

 home to Melton, with Dick Christian as fox, that 

 he declared — " zvhat fun zue should have if it zvasnt 



foi^ these hounds ! " " Dick Gurney" refused 800 



guineas for Sober Robin, from Mr. Maling, of Bath. 

 This horse was originally purchased by Mr. Anderson, 

 senior, for 80/., at Lincoln fair, when he was four years 

 old, and was sold to Mr. Gurney for 100 guineas. He 

 was then put into the hands of a Norfolk farmer, to 

 ride with harriers for a year, before Mr. Gurney took 

 him into his own stable. He was a handsome short- 

 legged brown animal, perhaps a trifle under sixteen- 

 one, and his power even under such a fearful handicap 

 as nineteen stone for twelve seasons was incredible. 

 One of the very few horses of that time which equalled 

 him in substance was Mr. Edge's Gayman : but as Mr. 

 Edge was a Ouorn man, and Mr. Gurney invariably 

 hunted with the Pytcheley, the Mammoths were never 

 fairly laid alongside each other in a run. Mr. Gurney 

 did not begin to ride till late in life, and then he went 



