20 MEMOIR OF 



shall go there early and buy a horse for your- 

 self ; but mind, he must be a well-bred one 

 and up to your weight." 



Jack felt as if he should require a strait- 

 waistcoat — almost beside himself — on hearing 

 such joyous news ; for of all things on earth 

 a day with the staghounds, and that, too, on 

 his own horse, was then, in the heyday of his 

 youth, the climax of his ambition. 



Accordingly, the next morning, long before 

 daylight, he was off for Tiverton Fair, at that 

 time considered the Howden of the West, so 

 far as a goodly show of Exmoor ponies, Devon- 

 shire pack-horses, and half-bred hunters could 

 justify such a comparison. Nor did he waste 

 much time in making a selection ; a brown 

 mare with big limbs and a lean head, belonging 

 to a dealer named Rookes, caught his eye, and 

 as she proved to be a good mover, and was 

 said to be a five-year-old, he bought her after 

 a few words for £t,o. 



Alas ! The mare proved to be only a two- 

 year-old ; but, although Russell was unmerci- 

 fully quizzed as a second Moses of green 

 spectacle celebrity, she turned out to be as 

 honest a beast as ever looked through a bridle. 



A saddle and bridle having been readily lent 

 him by a friendly farmer, Jack, unconscious of 

 the tender age of the mare, and relying confi- 

 dently on his father's promise that ** he would 



