Breeding of Hunters. 309 



of fine substance, like himself, and Tom Ball declared 

 that his Harkover carried him quite as well as even 

 his beloved Grouse or King Pepin. 



Hunter-breeding at Badminton is not now con- 

 ducted on such an extensive scale as formerly. Black 

 Sultan, the pride of Shropshire, came there for two 

 seasons, and was then sold, when he was rising 

 twenty-eight, to a resident in Bristol. He was a 

 fifteen-three horse himself, handsome and stylish- 

 looking, but with thin thighs, and his stock all ran 

 about an inch less. One of them, a fourteen and a 

 half black hack, especially distinguished himself 

 across country, and earned an honourable mention 

 in the Badminton hunting song. Will Long rode 

 another of his get, St. Paul ; and the late Duke was 

 very fond of his son Rubens, as he could indulge 

 on him to the full in his favourite mode of letting 

 the reins lie on his neck, and larruping his laziness 

 along. "The Squire" rode Rubens once, and de- 

 clared he was never on a more idle but enduring 

 horse — the same at night as in the morning. It was 

 in this country, in " a sharp, short, and decisive" thing 

 of fifteen minutes over walls, from Aston Gorse to 

 Farmington Gorse, that the Squire led on Grimaldi, 

 who was bred by the late Mr. Clififord, of Swell Bowte, 

 in Gloucestershire. Will Long on Draper, however, 

 lived with the grey, as well as another individual, who 

 vexed " The Squire" so deservedly by riding among 

 the hounds, that he complained to the Duke of him 

 when he came up, and offered to have him " anywhere 

 you like — pistol or fists," with all that fine pluck 

 which came so well to his rescue a quarter of a cen- 

 tury after, when a number of " riflemen" were begin- 

 ning to hustle him at Doncaster. Steeple had his 

 day, and Worcester was nearly the last horse the late 

 Duke rode ; and Lion, whom he bought from Mr. 

 Niblett, of the White Lion at Bristol, and whom he 

 would suffer no one else to ride, his very last. Lop, 



