Breeding of Hunters. 295 



Mr. Allen M'Donogh was equally great in a similar 

 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 th e same instant. The latter in hot Irish 

 haste drove The Nun slantways across ridge and fur- 

 row, the nearest cut to the winning flags, pumping the 

 wind out of her at every stroke, while Mason cantered 

 along the bottom furrow till he got to the one run- 

 ning straight up to the flags, and then sent Lottery 

 out like a shot, and beat the mare a good two lengths. 

 Lord Waterford's Blueskin, however, should not be 

 forgotten among steeple-chasers, as with his " owner 

 up," and at all weights from I3st. 7lbs. to I2st, he won 

 three four-mile steeple-chases successively against 

 fresh horses, one afternoon, at Eglington Park, in 



1843. 



Sir Charles Knightley's leap of thirty-one feet over 

 a fence and brook, just below Brixworth-hill, has ever 

 since gone by the name of " Knightley's leap." It 

 was accomplished, we believe, on his celebrated black 

 horse Benvolio ; but he was on his nearly as famous 

 bay Sir Marinel when he led Mr. Gurney on Sober 

 Robin over a gate, such as a nineteen-stone man 

 has never yet jumped, and never will again. The 

 Pytcheley had a fast thing from a gorse of the baro- 

 net's, at Dodford, and ran to the Nen, near Heyford 

 village, where there is a bridge across the river, and 

 a six-barred locked gate in the middle of it. They 

 were just running into their fox, about 200 yards 

 ahead, when Sir Charles, with Mr. Gurney about as 

 far behind him, reached the gate. Finding it locked, 

 he turned his horse round and went over it, and to 

 his amazement, as he glanced back, the Norfolk 

 welter and his horse were in the air. Fortune fa- 

 voured them, and although Robin rapped it like 



