Aswarby Park 



CHAPTER XII. 



Aswarhy Park — The Bclvoiv, 1846 — William Goodall — Tom Moody — For the 

 honour of Essex — A Lincolnshire dyke — Lost in High Leicestershire — Big v. 

 Little Horses — Singeing v. Clipping— Sir Richard Sutton — The Punch Bowl 

 — Burrow Hill — An anikwavd fence — Colonel Wynham — Tlie Pytchley at Crick, 

 18^6— George Payne— Lady Villiers gets the brush — Lord Strathmore ivins the 

 Worcestershire Steeplechase on " The Sivitcher " — The Old Club — " Carloivs " 

 cleverness — Dick Sutton — Captain Coles — A brilliant scurry — Good Champagne 

 — Billesdon Coplow — Mr. Frere's House — Mr. Surtees — Mr. Gascoigne — 

 Lord Gardner — Leicestershire men's dislike of ditches — " Cognac " takes a stiff 

 line of stiles — Lord Forrester — Ranksborough Gorse — Mr. Parry — Captain 

 Houblon — Hallingbiiry Hall — Simpson's discrimination — " Cognac's " leap. 



WEDNESDAY, November 4th. This morning- found me 

 in the saddle at 7.45, on the back of " Miss Circe," 

 havino- hastily swallowed a cup of coffee and put a little dry 

 toast in my pocket to last me until I should reach Grantham, 

 whither Beckington had preceded me on " Cognac," with in- 

 structions to order breakfast for me. The morning was misty 

 and cloudy and the first part of the road very uninteresting until 

 I reached Croxton Park, a seat of the Duke of Rutland, where 

 the country assumed a magnificently English appearance, with 

 undulating green slopes well clad with fine timber ; and this 

 character of scenery continued nearly to Grantham. Some of 

 the villages nestling among the trees and meadows are very 

 pretty, especially I may mention Harlaxton. 



