Dick Christians Lecture. 341 



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, 

 sometimes over ; many's the sousing I've had. I 

 mind Sir Gilbert once gave me a sovereign for that 

 work : I had had a regular hydrophobia gentleman 

 to tackle that day. Sir Gilbert took to the Cot- 

 tesmore hounds for a time, and he made me head 

 groom ; then he got me a man to help, and I used 

 to go out and act as whip : Lord Forester would 

 talk of it if he were alive ; I must have done it 

 for two seasons. Let me see : I first broke my leg 

 in February, 1799, coming from hunting, on a fa- 

 vourite mare of Sir Gilbert's ; they called her 

 Chance ; she fell with me on the road about seven 

 o'clock, between Exton and Whitwell ; I hopped 

 a quarter of a mile to Whitwell, and Mr. Spring- 

 thorpe, a good English farmer, caught my mare and 

 hoisted me on her. I rode to Normanton Park in 

 furious pain : the thought of it makes me wince 

 to this day ; my word it does ; I feel it now, as I sit 

 here. 



Then the Prince of Wales, he comes to Normanton, 

 and gives me ten guineas for mounting of him. I put 

 him as often as I could on Buffalo ; he was sold at 

 Tattersall's for 500 guineas, and the Prince bought 

 him. He was a strange man for a bit of fun. Old 

 Tot Hinckley, the dealer, was a great man with him. 

 I mind him and the Duke of Clarence coming down 

 the stable-yard, and they says, " Here's Old Tot ;" 

 and they shoves him into a blacksmith's shop, and 

 locks him in. They were uncommon fond, I've heard, 

 of locking people in ; I don't see no fun in it myself. 

 Mr. Assheton Smith used to be staying with Sir 

 Gilbert ; he was the best rider amongst them. Then 

 there was Lord Forester, Mr. Cholmondley, Mr. 

 Lindow, Lord Willoughby, and a lot more. Mr. 

 Smith bought a fine grey horse I rode then, and 



