24 RIDING 



known to fame has by public consent been for so many years 

 recognised as having no superior and hardly an equal over a 

 country, there can be no heart-burning caused by mentioning 

 him as the exact type of what is here meant by the man who 

 will be with them, and of whom it may be safely predicated 

 that whenever he gets astride of a horse good, bad, or indifferent, 

 in the hunting-field, it will be his misfortune, not his fault, if he 

 . does not see all that is worth seeing of the performance. One 

 of the rare instances of men whose nerve has remained ab- 

 solutely unimpaired into middle age, he yet was never even 

 in hottest youth what is called a foolhardy rider. Perfectly 

 devoid of jealousy, his one object in hunting is to see the run, 

 while he has always been ready, ofttimes even at the sacrifice 

 of that laudable ambition, to assist his friends, a term which in- 

 cludes the wide circle of his acquaintance, if his help could avail 

 them during the vicissitudes of the chase. He was seen once 

 sprawling on his back after a fall at the Beeby Bottom, whose 

 treacherous banks had given way as he landed, gripping the reins 

 of his struggling steed, but otherwise unmindful of his position 

 and cheerily shouting to his followers, * Come fast, come fast, 

 the bank is rotten.' Lord Scamperdale would have remarked, 

 ' Hold your tongue you fool, and you'll have it full presently.' 

 Though, as aforesaid, Captain Smith was never foolhardy, 

 knowing full well that the less exertion a horse is called upon 

 to make at his fences, the more of them he can be trusted to 

 clear, yet who so bold as he when desperate circumstances 

 required desperate decisions ? On one occasion he and another 

 man got together in a corner, hounds running like smoke, and 

 no apparent egress. A glance convinced the friend of the im- 

 practicability of the place and, ' It can't be done, Doggy,' he 

 cried, as he saw the latter turn his horse for a run at the uncom- 

 promising obstacle. ' It can with a fall,' quietly replied the 

 Captain, who forthwith proceeded to put his design into exe- 

 cution, took his fall, remounted nimbly, and was after the pack 

 with scarce two seconds delay, while his friend went away very 

 sorrowful to look for a gate. 



