HISTORY OF THE LINLITHGOW 



ledge of the greater part of the country over 

 which he rode, was generally able to be with 

 hounds when they ran hard. The leap which he 

 took when hunting in the Warwickshire country, 

 in the spring of the year 1856, is probably without 

 a parallel in the annals of the chase, and will not 

 be forgotten so long as fox-hunting lasts. Hounds 

 had met at Charlecote, and during a run which 

 ensued. Colonel Gillon, riding his celebrated white 

 horse Potiphar,^ then fifteen years old, cleared 

 an extraordinarily wide fence, the distance from 

 the taking off of the horse's fore feet to the 

 landing of his hind ones being afterwards measured 

 by the Kev. Mr Drake, an eye-witness, as being 

 not less than thirty-four feet. The fame of this 

 performance soon spread beyond the limits of the 

 district in which it took place, and even beyond 

 the shores of Great Britain, for the following 

 account of the episode appeared in one of the 

 French newspapers of the time. " Dans une re- 

 union de chasse, qui a eu lieu tout recemment 

 dans le Varwick-Shire, M. Gillon, de Wallhouse, 

 montant son cheval Putiphar, age de 15 ans, a 

 franchi une palissade formee d'une haie, d'un 

 fosse et d'une barriere ; le saut a ete de 34 pieds. 

 Le terrain a ete mesure immediatement apres ce 

 magnifique saut perilleux." The string which Mr 

 Drake used in making his measurement subse- 

 quently came into Colonel Gillon's possession, and 

 is preserved and valued by his son, Captain Gillon, 



1 Vide illustration, p. 170. 



188 



