312 LEAVES FROM A HUNTING DIARY 



Altogether a nice, straight run, I am told, but unfortunately accompanied 

 with very bad luck, Mr. Philip Gold losing a valuable horse from a broken 

 back. So far the season has been very disastrous for horses. I know of 

 five who have succumbed. 



The fastest weight-carrier in Essex, says Mr. Marriage, 

 who heard of him from a friend in '95. and immediately set off 

 for the northern borders of Essex to buy him. He was to have 

 hunted him. but heavy snow coming" on he had to content 



Jacob Marriage on Eliasin II. 



himselt with a gallop in the snow. Regretting that he could 

 not jump the horse, the farmer, the breeder of the animal, took 

 Mr. Marriage into two large yards parted by a gate. " There," 

 he said, " take him over that gate,"* and over the gate went 

 Mr. M., backwards and forwards, with two feet to spare each 

 time. No wonder that he bought the horse then and there, 



''■' Most of us would have said, " Take him yourself" — a strange horse, a 

 five-barred gate, and a snowy morning. Bravo, Mr. Marriage ! — Ed. 



