Page:The Victoria History of the County of Lincoln Volume 2.pdf/446

Rh and North Carlton, Bartholomew of Goltho, Nainby of Barnoldby, Brooks of Croxby, and Chambers of Reasby Hall.

Very few horses are now brought into Lincolnshire to be converted into hunters, and fewer still are bred, the chief reason being that the farmers have been tempted to part with the best of their females, and so there are very few brood mares left in the country worth breeding from. The Pelhams were always noted for their breed of horses, and the present Lord Yarborough still has a stud farm at Brocklesby. In days gone by the blood of Bay Barb and Brocklesby Betty was something to be proud of in any part of England. About the beginning of the last century Lord Yarborough bought a Sir Peter mare, a sister to Hermione, from Lord Grosvenor. He used to send his mares to Lord Fitzwilliam's and Lord Egremont's best horses, and a mare by Lord Egremont's Driver was one of the best they have had in the Brocklesby stables. Quicksilver, a small blood-like horse, was the first noted sire that Lord Yarborough had; his stock were all chestnuts with duck noses—wide nostrils—and the proverbial 'skin like a mouse,' and they were as good to tell as if they were labelled. At one time the country was full of his stock, and afterwards with Sir Malagigi's generally queer-tempered ones. This latter horse came from Holderness, and was very loosely built, and his owner used to say that a season in North Lincolnshire was worth four hundred guineas in two-guinea fees. It was on a mare belonging to Mr. Frank Iles, by Pilgrim from a Devi-sing mare, whose sire Eclipse had been imported into Lincolnshire by Lord Yarborough, that Mr. Tom Brooks won the historic steeplechase against Mr. Field Nicholson in 1821. Hippomenes, Negotiator, Robin Hood, Darnley, Bellerophon, and Mandeville were also famous sires in the early part of the nineteenth century, as also were Orion, Catterick, Fernhill, and Humphrey. Morgan Rattler was another great sire, and all his stock could win races. It used to be said that the Leicester hack was a pretty good hunter for other countries; and the same was said of the farmer's hack of the Lincolnshire Wolds. His master—farming anything from three hundred to fifteen hundred acres—had no time to lose crawling about on a half-bred cart mare, the farm had to be visited before hunting, and the market towns lie wide for five-miles an hour. It was the fashion on the Wolds a few years ago, and is still in many cases, to ride round farming at a good pace, and to fly the fences if the gates are at the wrong end of the fields.

Mr. W. Taylor-Sharp of Baumber Park, who bred the famous Galopin, Mr. Richard Botterill of Tathwell Hall, and Mr. J. C. Hill of Willoughton Cliff, who bred Euclid and Gallinule, are extensive breeders of thoroughbreds; and Mr. W. E. Elsey of Baumber is also a breeder and a trainer of racehorses on a very large scale. Peter Simple and Gay Lad were two of the most celebrated Lincolnshire steeplechase horses of the past. The famous steeplechase sire Ascetic was bred by Mr. Charles Clark of Ashby de la Launde.

Lord Yarborough's stud of hunters is always a good one, and the hunt servants of the Belvoir, the Blankney, the Southwold, and the Burton are all well horsed.

Hackney breeding has never 'caught on' in Lincolnshire, though both Mr. S. B. Carnley of Alford and Mr. W. C. Wood of Wootton Dale have large breeding studs. But the county has always been well to the front as a