TATTERSALL'S

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 358, 20 October 1932, Page 6

TATTERSALL'S

THE GREATEST BRITISH MART FOF BUYING AND SELLING HORSES. FOUNDED IN 17TH CENTURY.

There used to he an idea many years ago that a hunter bought in the summer could he got cheaper than just before the hunting season, when the demand would b"e greater; but the wish. was over father to th.6 thought, for the summer saies at Tattersall s have produced some of the biggest prices ever paid (writes G. Cornwallis West in the London Daily Telegraph). Tattersall's, as a horse mart, was founded in 1766 by one Richard Tattersall, at one time stud groom to the second Dulce of Kingston, and the present owners are direct deseendants of that enterprising individual. The premises first occupied were at Hyde Park corner, which was then outside London proper. Mayfair was in an emhryonic state, and Belgrave had not been thought of ; leaders of rank and' fashion lived principally in Bloomsbury. It was not until 1865 that Tattersalls removed to its present quarters at Knightsbridge. A Sunday Rendezvous. ! In late Victorian days, before the advent of golf and motors, and the consequent exodus from London at the week-end, "Tatt's" was the place to go to on a Sunday afternoon dui'ing the seas.on. Here one was sure to be able to renew acquaintanceships maue the previous winter, or to meet j long-standing friends of the hunting field. Perhaps the Mastei* of the pack with which one had hunted was selling his stud, and had sent his huntsm'en up for the occasion, and there would he a chance of talking over the good hunts of six months ago. Beautifully dressed women and men in immaculate froclc coats and tall hats would all be discussing hunting and hunters. ! There was a horsey-doggy atmosph-ere about the whole place. How different to-day! I haopened to look in one week-end

not long ago,. and except for the presence of the actual sellers and potential buyers, my impression was that, as a general rendezvous for a Sunday afternoon, Tattersall's was m more. One feature, however, had not changed; every owner who had sent up his horses for sale was a horse coper for one week-end, as was also his groom. The same questions, some wise, some foolish, were still being asked. What groom would say "No" to "Is he a good hunter?" Record for Hunter. The present Lord Lonsdale easily holds the record for the largest sum of money ever received for a stud of hunters. When he gave up the Quorn Hounds some thirty years ago he sent up a hundred horses (mainly chestnuts) to Tattersall's and they fetched £25,000. People simply went mad, and even young and indifferent horses (there were very few of the latter) fetched enormous prices. The late Lord Cholmondsley and Lord Chesham — -the lastnamed, poor man, broke his neck at a tiny fence — also had remarkable saies for small studs. Those were the days of early high-class heavyweight hunters, which are becoming harder and harder to get. Many are the funny tales told about "Tatt's," and one of the funniest concerned an owner who had sent up a docked horse for sale. Realising that this was unfashionable, he had cunningly fixed an artificial tail under the hair of the stump, but unfortunately, during the run up in front of the rostrum, it came off. Not in the least abashed, th'e auctioneer said: "Never- mind, ladies and gentlemen, hair grows very quickly on a horse's tail. « Jim, run .him down again!"