58 LEAVES FROM A HUNTING DIARY 



The brook was by no means the worst obstacle that was encountered ; 

 the bank already alluded to, and another very similar to it beyond the 

 second brook, required a lot of doing — there being no purchase for a 

 horse's foot, the lot had to be flown. It ivas a course tvhich a Leicestevshive 

 horse, who had never seen a hank in his life, would have stood a better chance over 

 than the ordinary Essex hunter. But they were not the ordinary Essex hunters 

 that ran in this race, but animals that could hold their own in any country 

 in England. For I have always maintained that a good Essex hunter can 

 go in any country; and we all know how quite recently, in the cream of the 

 cream and shire of the shires, some pretty good prices w^ere bidden for 

 horses that ran in these point-to-point races, but which although they ran 

 are not good enough to win. 



To continue my description of the course after this long digression, a 

 rail-guarded fence on the way home near the Cottage would not stand 

 trifling with, but wanted a leap of some 15 feet to land you clear over the 

 ditch on the far side. The bank out of the Cottage lane before holes were 

 knocked in the fence on the top of it by the heavies was no trifle, and 

 ripped up the girths of Mr. Price's horse as he grazed the stifif stakes on 

 the top of it. The brook on the way home was nothing if you hit it off 

 where a man waved his cap to show the line. (Who was he, and why 

 was he allowed to do it ? Mr. Hart was very indignant, and quite right 

 too. As he says, you don't expect to take your nurses out with you when 

 you are riding in a point-to-point.) The biggest jump of the whole day 

 was, unfortunately, attended with fatal results to Mr. Audley Blyth's grey : 

 his horse, landing on a hard mound, broke its leg, and had to be shot, 

 after having cleared a carved-out ditch about 20 feet in width— 25 was 

 actually measured from where he took off" to where he landed. 



In the Farmers' Race, in which both classes (heavy and light) ran 

 together, only eight came to the post, and of these only four passed it on 

 the homeward journey. Mr. Avila came down three times, and Major Carter, 

 as he lay on the ground, had a most narrow escape of being jumped on by 

 Mr. Theodore Christy, who, as usual, won the welter on " Chinaman." Mr. 

 Arkwright did the regular thing for the third time of asking on Mr. 

 Milbank's " Sir Frederick," making no less than a total of eight point-to- 

 POiNTS to his credit— and when he has not been first he has been second — 

 a good performance. If he goes on at the same rate with luck, by the time 

 he is Mr. Jones's age he may have added yet another 30 to the total — 

 unless he retires in order to give someone else a chance. 



"Spitfire," the property of Major H. A. Carter, R.A., is a 

 grey gelding by " Torpedo," by " Gunboat," dam by " Polestar," 

 Bred in Ireland in 1887, he won the Essex Hunt Lightweight 

 Point-to-Point in 1894, the Fox Hunters' Plate, Harlow, United 

 Hunt Plate, Colchester, the same year, and the Essex Hunt 

 Club Cup, Harlow, in 1895 ; owner up each time. As game a 

 little horse as ever looked through a bridle, he was a pretty 

 warm member with hounds the first time or two the Major rode 

 him, and no one without his owner's determination (you do not 

 meet many of them) would have cared to tackle him. 



"Sir Frederick" by "Quits," dam by "Zouave." This 

 half-bred brown gelding, standing 15.2^, by the merest chance 



