MAKING THE RUSTICS STARE 433 



which one had to jump standing, with the disadvantage of 

 turning one's horse away from those going down the lane, the 

 " Baroness " blundered, slipped and came down, giving me her 

 first fall, and looking vastly like going backwards into the 

 deep ditch, which would have lost us the whole run. Fortu- 

 nately I managed to light on my feet on the off side, and 

 keeping hold of the bridle held on so firmly to her head that 

 she just managed to get up and bring her hind legs up with 

 some difficulty. As I was remounting with 6 lbs. of clay to each 

 boot, those in the lane who had witnessed the operation sang 

 out "that was cleverly done," and away I had to sail at a great 

 pace for the state of the ground, to catch the hounds, which we 

 accomplished, and soon afterwards ran up to our deer in the 

 brook near Waples Mill ; a widish arm of the brook had to 

 be jumped, which seemed to stop or delay all but myself and 

 old Smoothy, and we were joined by Wm. Barker, who had 

 crept through some ford, and away we three raced with the 

 hounds, the rest of the field far in the rear. At a fastened gate 

 into a road Lucking, on his capital litde chestnut, joined us, 

 and then the four kept on to the narrow lane going from 

 Fy field to Norwood. 



Here we lost a little time at a high narrow bank out of the 

 lane, which Wm. Barker declined altogether, and the pause let 

 up some two or three others, including Basil Sparrow, who took 

 W. Barker's place and kept it until he went comfortably into 

 the middle of an awkward, wide and blind place which " The 

 Baroness" had just accomplished with some little difficulty; 

 this left three horses again, viz., " The Baroness," Smoothy's 

 and Lucking's, and we kept on over the meadows and fields 

 between Norwood Hall and the Ongar Road, with big awkward 

 fencing ; one looked a rasper and I saw that Lucking, who 

 knew the country well, did not like the look of it — a high 

 bank, bushy with dried grass, and some unknown quality of 

 ditch the far side. Two yokels were standing on the bank 

 grinning near two big trees about six feet or eight feet apart. 

 Notwithstanding the trees I thought that the fence between them 

 looked the fairest, and so catching hold of " The Baroness " I 

 sent her at it with a will ; she tried to cut it, first to left and 

 then to right, as quick as thought (in either case she would have 

 smashed me against one or other of the trees), but finding it 

 would not do she raced at the fence and topped the bank most 

 cleverly, like a deer, and landed well out in the next field, 

 clearing double the width of the wide ditch which was there, 

 and making the admiring rustics open their mouths. 



28 VOL. II 



