SEASON 1875-76 81 



sportsman and his doings are many, and one of his 

 cracking falls made him go light-headed for a 

 time, that when he got back to London, he 

 shocked his many friends by jumping out of a 

 window. He turned up again at covert side all 

 right next season, and said, "Frank, I made one 

 of the biggest jumps I ever made in my life this 

 summer, three stories high ! I don't suppose I 

 was right in my head, it ought to have killed me, 

 but it did not ! " 



February as usual this season brought its 

 quantum of good sport, and on the 2nd hounds 

 ran a fox very hard from Croxton to Easton Park, 

 where he beat the pack by scaling the wall after 

 making three attempts, falling back twice. The 

 web-like foot of a fox enables him to take hold of 

 a wall and get over a high one where a hound 

 cannot follow. 



Frank had an interesting recollection of a 

 favourite gray horse Sluggard, who carried him 

 well for eleven seasons, and only gave one fall. 

 When a four -year -old the horse belonged to a 

 small farmer, who was often three sheets in the 

 wind, and used to hunt twice a week, jumping over 

 every mortal thing, no matter whether hounds ran 

 or not. The horse's tail had never been pulled or 

 squared, and he lived in a crew-yard where a besom 

 and duck-pond constituted all the grooming he ever 

 got. " I wish you would buy that horse to carry 

 me, Mr. Musters," Gillard often said to his master ; 

 but Mr. Musters's reply was always, " I don't 

 know what the deuce you will want me to buy you 



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