200 LEAVES FROM A HUNTING DIARY 



Hunt Cup at the Essex Hunt Meeting- at Rundells. and when 

 leading three fences from home missed his stride in taking off 

 at a small fence with a narrow trappy ditch on the take-off side, 

 got too close, blundered on landing, half recovered himself and 

 then turned head over heels, breaking his back behind the 

 saddle. A gun was sent for. but the poor old fellow died 

 before it arrived. The old horse was a bit hot with hounds, 

 fidgety on a bad day, but all there when hounds ran. He was 

 a bad roarer from his youth up. but used to catch his second 

 wind after going a mile. He was a perfect hack, and could 

 carry himself jauntily into Chelmsford after an 1 8-mile ride 

 home without having once tripped his toe during the journey, 

 a feat which is beyond the power of most thoroughbreds. 

 " Lord Alfred" only gave Mr. Tweed four falls, one in a run 

 from Forest Hall to the High Woods, when he got too close to 

 a grass-grown ditch ; another, when leading a youngster at 

 school over Mr. Tweed's steeplechase course at Woodham, 

 when he took off too far away from the brook and struck the 

 opposite bank ; the third, when he rolled over Mr. Tweed at 

 Bedford by taking off in the furrow of a ridge and furrow field, 

 the fence being on the top of the ridge and pretty stiff ; and the 

 last, when he was killed at Rundells. So long as he met no 

 animal which chopped him for speed before he got his second 

 wind, he could always stay the 3 miles, and even when beaten 

 he would" keep on struggling and jumping faultlessly. He 

 was an invaluable schoolmaster for young horses, as he 

 fenced in such good form, and young'uns, we know, always 

 take their cue from the schoolmaster. As a hunter he had 

 the great defect common to the English thoroughbred ; he 

 could not stand what the late Harry Hieover called the "day 

 labourer part of the business." Three days a fortnight 

 would get him dreadfully light and put him off his feed. 

 Instead of turning his attention to his winter oats, he would be 

 dreaming of Bailey and his horn. 



"Hop Bitters." a brown gelding by " Barbillion " out of 

 " Hopbine," was a good stamp of the thoroughbred hunter, 

 standing 15-3. long and low, with a rare back. He was a good 

 mount when hounds ran, but nervous and irritable when his 

 mind was not intent on business ; he was no good for boring a 

 hole through a hairy place in a pottering run. Mr. Tweed 

 remembers Mr. Carnegy saying to him, after refusing such an 

 obstacle, " Pull out of the way, and let me have a go ; my fellow 

 does not mind scratching his face." 



" Hop Bitters " won the Essex United Hunt Cup of /30 at 



