no DICK WEBSTER. 



acquainted with the hunting field thirty or forty years ago, 

 although he hunted more frequently with the Quorn than 

 with Mr. Tailby. As a cross-country rider he was noted for 

 good nature and daring, was a bruiser to hounds, and a good 

 man over a steeplechase course, although he never could 

 resist the inclination to chaff the jockey immediately in his 

 rear. This propensity upon several occasions cost him the 

 race, for when he had it well in hand, by such manoeu- 

 vring he would lose it on the post — a characteristic which 

 never deserted him. At this period he used to farm exten- 

 sively, and it being observed that his ploughmen always sat 

 down in the middle of the field to eat their lunch, someone 

 was curious enough one day to ask them why they did not 

 seek the usual shelter of the hedge, to which one of them 

 replied : 



" Well, ye see. Sir, it be like this ere ; when maister 

 " rides round we niver knows which side he be acoming 

 " into the field, as he alius jumps the hedge, and if we 

 ''wore a sitting under it, he might like as not come a-top 

 *'of us." 



I well remember one day towards the end of the run, the 

 going was very heavy, and Dick Webster's horse had been 

 laboriously pounding along almost up to his hocks over a 

 ploughed field (there was more plough in those days), 

 when he failed to clear the fence in front of him, and 

 having grassed Dick, there the horse still lay as quietly as 

 if shot, whilst Dick, now on his feet, the reins in his hands, 

 which he had not let go, looking down on the prostrate form 

 of the underbred, shouted out, " His grandmother's name 

 was " Smiler," I'll be bound ! 



I have always understood that Dick Webster belonged 

 to that good old yeoman class — now all but extinct — who 

 were deservedly regarded as the very backbone of the 

 country and certainly of field sports — prosperous men who 

 farmed their own broad acres, bred and handled their own 

 horses, and knew how to ride them. 



