AND STIRLINGSHIRE HUNT 



Preston, where, getting on better terms with their 

 fox, they began to run as if they meant it, and 

 continued to do so by Nether Parkley and Parkley 

 craigs to Nancy's hill. From that point to the 

 finish it was best pace all the way and hard work 

 to live with them as they raced by Ochiltree Castle, 

 Riccarton, and Broomieknowes back once more to 

 B'ormie, close to which, at the end of a good hunt 

 of two hours and a half, they marked their fox to 

 ground. By candle-light he was dug down to, 

 bolted and killed, his brush being bestowed on 

 Mrs Shanks, the farmer's wife who had holloaed 

 him away in the morning, and who stayed to see 

 the finish.^ It was in this run that Mr W. 

 J. Drybrough, riding his horse The Dream, leaped 

 the Preston march-wall, a performance so remark- 

 able that it deserves description, and " Croppie Boy" 

 shall tell the tale as he told it at the time. "But 

 what is this in front ? The Preston march-dyke, 

 a wall like the side of a house, built with mortar 

 and with square, uncompromising coping stones on 

 top. There is no disgrace in turning from this 

 obstacle, for it is all but utterly unjumpable, so we 

 go round. But the well-known rider of the grey 

 means to have a whet at it, and with three mighty 

 bounds the horse, with 16 st. on top of him, launched 

 clear over nearly six feet of solid masonry. On 

 the other side is a drop, measured next day, of 

 fourteen feet some odd inches, so of course they 

 fall — in fact, the horse's hind legs never touched 



1 ' Horse and Hound,' 15th December 1888. 

 279 



