BREEDING OF HUNTERS. 305 



cropped horse by Negotiator, his genius was put to 

 no such straits. 



For the comedy of errors in crossing a country, 

 amateur steeple-chasers are worth watching. None 

 of them have the noted Bill Wright's fine knowledge 

 of the art of being ' ' brought to the post just right. 3 ' 

 They are either under or over-done. Now, in Mr. 

 W/s sense of the word, " just right" meant " three 

 parts of a bottle of port wine, two glasses of brandy- 

 and-water, and a pipe." When he was fairly " in 

 condition" he spurned the idea of reconnoitring the 



ground. " the ground," said he ; " looking at 



another glass of brandy-and-water will do me more 

 good than that." We saw one of them lately so 

 desperately flurried at taking the lead and winning, 

 that he stuck to it, when he went to scale, that there 

 had been no brook in the race, although he had 

 cleared it in fine style with both stirrups flying. 

 Another, too, who, by-the-bye, was a coroner, of all 

 people, after giving his antagonist such a cannon at a 

 fence, that the two came down together, sailed past 

 us over a couple of fields, and then found out that he 

 was on a bay horse instead of the brown mare on 

 which he started. The strongest piece of horseman- 

 ship we remember, was James Mason, that Emperor 

 of steeple-chase riders past and present, recovering 

 Lansquinet when he made a mistake in a Hippodrome 

 steeple-chase ; and Earl Fitzhardinge will bear us out 

 that Mr. Allen M'Donogh was equally great in a simi- 

 lar difficulty at a gate, when he rode Sir William for a 

 Cheltenham steeple-chase. It was curious to note the 

 difference of temperament between Mason and poor 

 William M'Donogh when they jumped into the corner 

 of the last field, at the Dunchurch steeple-chase of 

 1839, at the same instant. The latter in hot Irish haste 

 drove The Nun slantways across ridge and furrow, the 

 nearest cut to the winning flags, pumping the wind 

 out of her at every stroke, while Mason cantered 



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