2o8 Hark Away, 



hunted up to the time of the lamentable accident 

 occurring, and looked fit to go. 



The Shah, which was the horse that fell and 

 caused the disaster, had, I am told, on a former 

 occasion, given his master a fall, from the same 

 cause, viz., by crossing his legs and rolling over. 

 Once would have sufficed for me, but probably 

 the Major had a fancy for him, and so overlooked 

 this fatal fault, always showing an amount of fond- 

 ness for his nags that would make him look leniently 

 on a mistake. 



Feeling sure that I should have no hunting to 

 record this week in the columns of BelVs Life, I 

 decided upon trying a new line — visiting Old Oak 

 Farm, in order to inspect Mr. Tattersall's stud, which 

 he was kind enough to say he should be pleased to 

 show me. Journeying to Shepherd's Bush, a neigh- 

 bourhood I had not visited for some years, I was 

 astounded at the alteration in the locality. 



Forty years ago this was a rural district ; now 

 it is a suburb of this, on all sides, vastly-increasing 

 metropolis, and in lieu of the verdant meadows 

 which Thomson must have had in his eye when 

 he wrote, " Now from the town, buried in smoke, 

 and sleep, and noisome damp, oft let me wander 

 o'er the dewy fields, where freshness breathes, and 

 dash the trembling drops from the bent bush, as 

 through the verdant maze of sweetbriar hedges I 

 pursue my walk." I found an array of semi- 

 detached villas, groves — not of flowering shrubs, 

 redolent with the perfume of mingled blossoms, 

 but highly suggestive of inferior bricks, concealing 

 compo, indifferent drainage, and damp delights, such 



