THE LIFE OF A SPORTSMAN 



thrilling scream, that seemed to enter into my soul, and look- 

 ing to my left, there saw Mr. Meynell, and also Mr. Loraine 

 Smith, who, having taken advantage of a turn, the result of a 

 quick eye, were then close to the pack. But where was Martin 

 Hawke, of whose desperate style of riding I had been told so 

 much by Mr. Somerby. He was not then to be seen, having 

 had a fall over a gate which would have stopped a red-deer. 

 But what surprised me most, was the pace at which Lord 

 Sefton passed me in the middle of a large field, and the quick- 

 ness with which he made up his ground, having had a bad 

 start. Young Raven, the huntsman's son, however, was behind 

 him, mounted on one of his horses, on to which he jumped at 

 the very first opportunity ; and well it was tliat he did so, for 

 neither money nor condition could maintain that speed long- 

 under sixteen stone. Still there were several heavy men going 

 well ; amongst them, Mr. Lockly, on a superb horse, called 

 Confidence, for which I heard he had refused 800 guineas. 

 But this reminds me of a sad disaster, which chilled the 

 pleasure of tins fine run. At the first check, Mr. Loraine 

 Smith's horse, whose name I understood was Hollyhock, and 

 for which Lord Sefton had oftered him the above-named sum, 

 dropped down dead, from a rupture of a blood-vessel at tlie 

 heart. Neither was this the sole disaster. A horse called 

 Hermit, ridden by Captain St. Paul, and which he had only 

 just purchased at the, even then, stiff price of 700 guineas, 

 stood stock-still in the middle of a field, and was only saved 

 from death by a copious bleeding by his master. This, how- 

 ever, gave rise to a rather ludicrous circumstance. A caricature 

 appeared in London, representing the scene, these words being 

 written underneath it : — " An apostle administering comfort to 

 a distressed hermit." 



' Up to this time — .say twenty minutes — I had been carried, 

 as I thought, well ; indeed, one gentleman, whose name I did 

 not know, said to me — " You are going well, sir " ; upon which 

 I stroked my horse's neck with my hand, and said to myself, 

 " I have got a superior horse." But I was rather premature in 

 my praises. He very soon did what 1 did not at all like. He 

 put his fore feet into a ditch, dropped his hinder legs in a 

 small brook, struck the top rail of a timber fence very hard 

 indeed, and was altogether not by half so pleasant a horse to 

 ride as he had been for the first ten minutes. To say the 



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