MR. HOTHERSALL 89 



not find a suitable * * dotible poney, " let alone a " cob-hunter " in 

 England. At last I luckily wrote to Mr. Morton the well- 

 known hackney breeder of Ballymena, Ireland, giving him 

 a description of the animal I had in my mind's eye. He 

 most kindly told me that the very animal I was in search 

 of had been bought recently near Ballymena by Mr. 

 Hothersall the Preston dealer. On the following day I was 

 in Preston, and at last beheld the cob-hunter of my disturbed 

 dreams. Seeing that she looked like an extraordinary fine 

 specimen of the, to English eyes, harness class of horse which 

 Mr. Oppenheimer, the great Hanover dealer, sends to Russian 

 officers, I said to Mr. Hothersall : "If I didn't positively 

 know that that mare was Irish, I'd have bet my life that she 

 was a German and that she belonged to Oppenheimer." 

 " She will belong to Oppenheimer if you don't take her ; for 

 he buys as many of that sort as he can get," replied the 

 Preston dealer. I bought her. 



The mare in question was by a hackney sire out of an 

 Irish hunting mare. She used to lift her feet up, cock her 

 tail, arch her neck, and carry herself as if the whole road and 

 the houses on each side of it belonged to her. She was short 

 in the back, long in the rein, had legs of iron, was of a 

 beautiful dark bay without any white ; and if she was a bit 

 thick in the shoulders, there is no ridge and furrow, let alone 

 oxers and "cut and laid" hedges in Russia. On a second 

 trip to Preston, I bought a nearly similar mare with the same 

 hackney cross, though of a lighter and better bred type. I 

 also purchased a handsome four-year-old chestnut Irish mare, 

 , 1 6 hands high, and the type of a very showy weight-carrying 

 Continental charger. She too had the hackney cross ; but 

 had thrown back to her sire, a thoroughbred. She had that 

 peculiarly easy, high - stepping walk which is immensely 

 admired by Continental officers. 



I freely confess that 1 would not care to hunt in The 



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