46 



a good horseman and rode fearlessly. In the course of 

 the chase, we had to leap a five barred gate, at the termi- 

 nation of a private road, leading towards a farm house. 



Being a stranger we kept him company, the rest having 

 galloped in advance. His horse was in the act of taking 

 the leap, when he imprudently checked him, and though 

 it was taken, the rider was unhorsed in a side ditch. He 

 was in an instant ludicrously metamorphosed, to the sem- 

 blance of a gentleman ditcher. As soon as his runaway 

 charger was retaken, the stranger nothing daunted, I'e- 

 mounted, after shaking and ridding himself of a quantum 

 of dirt, sand and water, which enveloped his person. 



Other mishaps however were in reserve, before the 

 death, for this luckless, but courageous gentleman. In 

 passing rapidly through the wood, the protruding limb of 

 a tree unceremoniously severed one half of the skirts of 

 his blue from the body, and shortly after by another acci- 

 dent, oft" went his indented mud covered chapeau, and 

 before the pine thicket was cleared, his coat was trans- 

 formed into a tolerable spencer. So began and so ended 

 his American fox hunting expedition. 



It afforded much mirth at the banquet; the toilet was 

 unable to disguise the grotesque. 



Candour induced him to admit the accident which first 

 befel him, was imputable to his own indiscretion. 



In another subsequent event, a member confessed the 

 fault to be his, when the consequence of holding on to 

 the curb of the horse, in the act of raising to take the 



