322 iktngs ot tbe Ibunttna^jfielt) 



respected by the most perfect practical exponents of the 

 sports of which he wrote. The Honourable Francis 

 Lawley, in his sympathetic biography of his friend, 

 says : — 



* Perhaps the greatest talent possessed by " The Druid " 

 was his capacity for getting humble and unlettered men 

 to put confidence in him, and unbosom themselves of 

 their choicest secrets for his benefit. Never was this 

 more exemplified than in the case of what he calls 

 " Dick Christian's Lectures." He tells us that it was 

 on a cold frosty evening early in January 1855 that he 

 first met " that great Professor of rough riding," from 

 whom he sought to learn how horses were tamed and 

 fields were won. Dick Christian was seated by a com- 

 fortable fireside in Chapel Street, Melton, when " The 

 Druid " pulled forth his trusty steel pen to report the 

 old man's " Lectures." " I had never seen him before," 

 he adds, " and came to the conclusion that seventy-eight 

 winters had dealt gently with the veteran. There he 

 sat, the same light-legged, sturdy, five-foot-six man, 

 with nearly all the muscular breadth of chest and vigour 

 of arm left, which had enabled him in his heyday to lift 

 a horse's fore-quarters as high as, if not higher, over a 

 fence than any other man that ever rode to hounds. 

 He seemed to be anxious to jump off at score upon his 

 great Marigold feat, the account of which had just been 

 cut out of an old newspaper and sent to him by a 

 friend ; but I called him back, and asked him what sort 

 of a boy he was, and got him well away on that theme 

 at last." ' 



I cordially agree with Mr Lawley on that point, and 

 rank ' Dick Christian's Lectures ' among the best things 

 * The Druid ' ever wrote. I am in agreement with Mr 



