358 THE POST AND THE PADDOCK. 



Mr. Meynell was like a regular little apple dump-, 

 ling on horseback ; Mr. Assheton Smith and Lord 

 Forester, them were the men for me. Lord Jersey, 

 too my word ! he was very good ; and Sir Charles 

 Knightley, he was one of Lord Jersey 's stamp. 

 He'd be more of a Pytchley man, though many's the 

 time Fve seen him in the Harboro' country, and 

 Lord Lonsdale's : it was precious seldom he'd miss 

 a Tilton or an Owston Wood meet. How he used 

 to go, to be sure ! he would be with hounds, to see 

 'em do their work. Blame me, but Fve seen him, at 

 the end of a run, all blood and thorns. Mr. Smith he 

 never galloped his horses at fences he always drew 

 them up. He had little low-priced horses when he 

 first came into this country, but he rode them as no 

 man ever will again ; they would do anything : 

 get into bottoms, and jump out of them like nothing. 



feat was last week inadvertently performed by that celebrated rider 

 and tough veteran, Dick Christian, of Melton Mowbray. He was 

 mounted on Mr. Coke's chesnut mare Marigold, and out with the 

 Quorn hounds near Holwell Mouth, when he charged a thick cut 

 hedge four feet six inches high, which he cleared in good style, the 

 mare alighting on a bank about a yard wide, with all her four feet 

 together ; immediately below this bank is a steep declivity into an 

 old quarry or stone-pit called Sot's Hole, about twelve yards deep; 

 the failure of the bank where friend Dick had thus suddenly depo- 

 sited his whole capital, must have proved fatal: luckily it stood 

 firm, and the generous animal on which he rode bounded boldly 

 forward, reaching the bottom in three springs, the measurement of 

 which we subjoin ; much to the amazement of the old stager and 

 several others who witnessed this unprecedented performance. Dick 

 found himself well fixed on his saddle when the gallant mare reached 

 terra firma, and both steed and rider perfectly unscathed. Mr. Coke 

 himself was by, and wondered for the moment what had become of 

 his mare. Too much praise cannot be given to our hardy veteran of 

 the field for his excellent nerve, his firm and vigorous hand, and 

 cool presence of mind, in this little affair. In the ^Sporting Maga- 

 zine for April, 1829, page 373, and Pierce Egan's Book of Sports, 

 page 221, honourable mention is made of this true " old English fox- 

 hunter," who is now in the 60th year of his age, and still hale and 

 hearty. The following is a correct statement of each leap, the height 

 of the hedge not being included : Over the hedge 1st leap, 18ft. Sin. 

 measured in a right line; 2nd leap, 10ft. 6in.; 3rd, 10ft.; 4th, 

 14ft. 9in. total 53ft. 3in. 



