166 The Hunting Field With Horse and Hound 



their own line and going straight. I gave Richard a hght pull 

 to the right, but he had no eye for the gate. Alreadj^ his 

 mind was made ujj to take the fence, wliich I afterwards 

 learned was called a bull-finch (an overgrown hedge on a bank 

 with a ditch on either side) . I thought of the Colonel's words, 

 "All j^ou have to have to do is to sit still and Richard will take 

 you through any place where a horse can go." Still, I felt as 

 if I must steady him, for he was going at such an awful pace. 

 Others were going the same pace and taking the fence. Force 

 of habit is strong. I wanted to take Richard by the head as 

 if he were going for a stake-and-rider in the Genesee Valley. 



"Nonsense," said Richard, "Come along, stranger, don't be 

 shy. I'll pull you through," and so he did, but his hind legs 

 dropped into the ditch on the landing side of the hedge. 



"Richard, that was my fault. I will never interfere with 

 you again at a bull-finch." 



We rode through a number of gates, a lane and along the 

 highway. Then we entered a meadow, jumped a small hedge, 

 and a sight to be remembered met my eyes. Forty riders, 

 more or less, were sailing down the gradual slope of a great 

 pasture field toward a stream brim full from the recent rains. 

 I had served years of apprenticeship at dry ditches and deep 

 ravines at home, but my experience at water was principally 

 confined to the usual twelve foot water jumps on exliibition 

 grounds. 



Oh, that brook, black, silent, deep looking! Saints and 

 ministers of grace defend us ! I was ready to go home. There 

 are any number of ravines and ditches in the Genesee Valley, 

 as wide and as deep. Why this one should look so frightful, 

 simply because it was full of water, I cannot say. I knew it 

 must be the safer ditch of the two to cross. I could tell by the 

 feeling of Richard that he never thought of turning his back 

 to it. 



"Come on," shouted the Colonel, who went past me with 



