82 HUNTING REMINISCENCES 



next, Frank ! " When the Borough Hill chases 

 came off at the end of the season, Sluggard was 

 entered in the Farmer's race, which he won easily, 

 and then that good sportsman Mr. Brewster of 

 Denton bought him, but could only get second in 

 one or two chases. At last when Gillard returned to 

 Belvoir he got Sluggard into the hunt stable. The 

 only fall he gave in eleven seasons was by Wymond- 

 ham in a good gallop, and Frank always said it 

 was his fault, not that of the horse. Finding the 

 crowd were rather too close to his heels when 

 riding him at a wide open gully, he changed his 

 purpose, and asked him at the last moment to jump 

 some stiff timber at the side. The result was 

 Sluggard came end over end, and in the melee his 

 bridle slipped off; Lord Aylesford followed, and 

 seeing that the huntsman had a damaged shoulder 

 and could not raise his arm, he caught the horse 

 for him and got his bridle on. Sluggard was a 

 tricky horse to ride until you knew him, for he 

 threw his head up and down as he approached a 

 fence, but was safe as London when left to it. On 

 one occasion when Blakesborough, the first whip, 

 rode him, he turned up at the end of the day with 

 two fearful black eyes where the horse had hit 

 him with his head. 



A succession of bad seasons for agriculture 

 caused the shoe to begin to pinch all those whose 

 income was derived from land, and the expense of 

 hunting a pack of hounds five days a week over 

 such an enormous extent of country became too 

 great a burden even for the noble owner of Belvoir. 



