350 THE POST AND THE PADDOCK. 



all the money away : such a to-do as never was seen. 

 They called her Petite, and I got a 10 note. I 

 might have betted an odd quart of ale, but I had no- 

 thing to back her with. Then I got into sad trouble 

 about playing a trick on the billy-goat : what a row 

 there was to be sure ! it was the grooms put me up to 

 it. Sir Gilbert sent me off the next morning. I was 

 at home all Sunday ; then Abbey comes for me, and 

 says as her ladyship was very bad about my going. 

 My blood was up, and I wouldn't go back ; but they 

 coaxed me, so I said I would go if father would 

 leave his farm for a day and come with me. So 

 away we three goes, and into Sir Gilbert's study. I 

 wasn't going to be brought back that way without 

 making some one pay ; so I says to Sir Gilbert (I was 

 always a one for speaking up), " Fll stay if you'll raise 

 my wages, Sir Gilbert, and I want ten guineas." So 

 he said, " Very well/' and gives me half-a-sovereign to 

 make up matters. I wasn't a bit to blame about the 

 billy-goat : I never knew what he'd go and do. So 

 I stayed there fifteen years. Sometimes I rode after 

 my lady, and then they made me second horseman. 

 It was then I first jumped the Whisse^idine brook ; 

 I couldn't be more than six or seven stone. Sir 

 Gilbert's horse refused, so he gets off, and I rode 

 one horse and led the other at it. What an owda- 

 cious young dog I was ! They were Lord Lonsdale's 

 hounds. I got over rarely with the two ; I must 

 have jumped that brook thousands of times ; I jumped 

 it back'ards and for'ards four times in one day. I 

 think I was in every time. Thorough-bred horses 

 are so frightened of water, but they jump better than 

 any when they do take to it. It was often a job 

 for me, when I was at Sir Gilbert's, to go a brook 

 jumping ; there'd be three of us : of course, Pd 

 be on top of the horse ; that wur always my place. 

 One 'ud lead, and the other would keep driving him 

 at it with a great waggon whip sometimes in, 



