The little bay with the white star on his forehead was to prove immensely influential in his new role the

The little bay with the white star on his forehead was to prove immensely influential in his new role; the mere mention of Mill Reef still brings a shine to the eyes of his most ardent admirer, the racing commentator John Oaksey.Horse racing and breeding gave Mellon excitement in a way art never did, so much so that he became irritable if distracted on the racecourse when he had a runner. And when, as a four- year-old in 1972, Mill Reef shattered a limb on the gallops, Mellon accepted an offer which allowed the horse to assume stallion duties at the National Stud in Newmarket rather than be sold more lucratively abroad.This gesture of benevolence would have been familiar to those in the art world, and the fact that Mill Reef was nevertheless syndicated for a record sum serves to underline the esteem in which the colt was held. Having scribbled furiously for the better part of 1980, he abandoned the work on realising that some 100 pages had been devoted exclusively to his equine allies of yesteryear.No doubt he had much to say; a veritable library of books has been written on his outstanding home-bred Mill Reef, possibly the finest horse to grace Britain's racecourses since the Second World War. In 1948 he married Rachel "Bunny" Lloyd and over a very long period her creative and imaginative presence, helping to maintain five houses and over 250 employees, gave him a feeling of security which he had never known in his early years.Paul Mellon's unstinting passion for horses can be gleaned from his first, unsuccessful effort at his autobiography, writes Julian Muscat. His tastes were simple and he was equally at home at a distinguished gathering, relaxing over a drink in an English pub or eating frankfurters at a hot- dog stand outside a racecourse. Apart from enjoying his interesting conversation and his sense of fun, one always had a feeling of his soundness and loyalty. With a great number of acquaintances, his circle of close friends always remained small and that circle was progressively reduced as his old friends predeceased him.He was a good companion.

A much- respected figure in racing circles, he supported the work of the Royal Veterinary College and kept horses in training with Ian Balding and with Balding's predecessors, Ivor Anthony and Peter Hastings-Bass, for over 50 years. He must have been one of a dwindling number of old-fashioned sportsman owners.In the corner of the study of his house in New York he had framed a quotation from Thomas a Kempis which read "Everywhere I have sought rest and found it not, except sitting in a corner with a little book." This quotation might equally have applied to Mellon, who was a somewhat solitary figure and an avid reader. Later, after the war, and shortly before her death in 1946, he and Mary started the Bollingen Foundation which, among many other publications, brought out a set of volumes of the complete works of Jung in English translation.Mellon had been baptised in St George's Chapel at Windsor Castle and throughout his life made countless visits to see his friends in Britain, to view the art galleries and to attend the races. After the departure of all the material from his own private gallery, the Brick House, on his 4,500-acre farm in Virginia, he amused himself by building up a collection of sporting art which was destined for Yale and for his local museum, the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts.Mellon's interest in psychiatry stemmed from a period he spent in Switzerland shortly before America entered the Second World War, when he and his first wife, Mary, worked under the guidance of Carl Jung.

Over and above this he endowed the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art in London, to pursue research and scholarship under the umbrella of the Yale institution. He had always been a dedicated Anglophile and his collection provided a comprehensive survey of British paintings, drawings, prints and books centred on the period from Robert Walpole's ministries up until the accession of Queen Victoria.The architect Louis Kahn was engaged to design a gallery to be called the Yale Center for British Art, and in 1977 Mellon presented it, together with his collection, to Yale University. Added to these benefactions he gave the gallery a large number of French Impressionist paintings collected over the years by him and by his wife Bunny.Apart from his association with the National Gallery, Mellon started in the early Sixties to form a remarkable collection of British art. Thirty-seven years later, in 1978, Paul Mellon turned over the new East Building, designed by I.M. Pei, to President Jimmy Carter "to be dedicated forever to the use and enjoyment of the people of the United States".This building had again been almost entirely funded with Mellon money, Paul's late sister Ailsa's foundation also playing a major part.