HUNTING, AND RIDING TO HOUNDS. 27 



open out their splendid shoulders ; that both these 

 liorses, on occasions such as these, I have known 

 by the extraordinary free action of their shoulder- 

 blade and forearm to burst their breastplates 

 from the ^^Ds" at the saddle-bow in their magnifi- 

 cent stretch to compass the unexpected width and 

 get safe over. Brutus occasionally would drop 

 his hind legs for a kick at the bank — I have 

 known him do it at a rail; but Jack never 

 w^ould, — at least, I never was aware that he did it. 

 Both these horses had the most perfect mouths, 

 and both were alike known to all the huntina' 

 country. It was Brutus who carried me over a 

 gravel pit, a standing jumjD twenty -three feet wide, 

 and at the time two men were w^orking at the 

 bottom of it, who were so surprised, that, on my 

 return from hunting, I found them waiting at 

 Crauford, in the servants' hall, with a line, of 

 measurement. I liave loved sjDort of every sort 

 and kind, and I rank the incidents of woodcraft 

 thus : — 



No. 1, to be on the back of a horse like Jack 

 o' Lantern, getting well away with foxhounds 

 over a flying country, and finding yourself with 

 none on either side of you and nobody very close 



