226 Ikings of tbe Ibunting^ifielO 



It happened that Miss Cracroft, a rival beauty, had a 

 bouquet in which was a hothouse flower of exceeding 

 rarity. It attracted general admiration, and Miss 

 Barton especially admired it, whereupon her rival 

 twitted her after the manner of dear friends. This was 

 not lost upon Osbaldeston. Pleading an excuse after 

 dinner for leaving the wine party, he got upon one of his 

 horses and rode to the house of the person from whom 

 the flower had been obtained, twenty-five miles distant, 

 and brought back another and more brilliant specimen, 

 which Miss Barton displayed in triumph at the supper 

 table. The distance, fifty miles, was accomplished at night 

 in less than four hours ! 



But, to my thinking, one of the manliest deeds ever 

 done by ' the Squire ' was his rescue of a drowning boy 

 in the middle of a fast run. It was whilst he was hunt- 

 ing the Burton country. The hounds were running 

 their fox at a tremendous pace, and had crossed the 

 river Witham above Brace Bridge. A boy in one of the 

 barges, in his excitement over watching the chase, 

 lost his footing and fell into the river. It was deep and 

 sluggish. The boy rose to the surface, sank again, and 

 would undoubtedly have been drowned, for there was 

 no assistance near enough to save him, when fortunately 

 Osbaldeston galloped up, saw the drowning boy, turned 

 from the bridge, rode over the fence into the marshy 

 field, through which the Witham flowed, jumped off his 

 horse, plunged into the water, dived after the boy and 

 brought him safely to land. 



What sort of cattle ' the Squire ' rode may be gathered 

 from the following anecdote, told by his old friend 

 Edward Hayward Budd, the famous cricketer and athlete. 

 'I was,' says Mr Budd, 'hunting with "the Squire" at 



