1826] RADBURNE. Ill 



seemed to go awkwardly at it, and this awkwardness was further increased by 

 the rider himself, who, as his horse rose, appeared to pull his nose to his breast, 

 by which the animal's fore feet were brought amongst the thorns, and his face 

 almost perpendicularly upon the ground. In consequeace he turned completely 

 over. I never recollect witnessing so complete a revolution of both horse and 

 rider. And, strange to say, they both immediately assumed a perpendicular 

 position, the rider's hand, instead of his foot, in the near stirrup. Very little 

 injury was sustained by either, though the fall was produced by unskilful horse- 

 manship, and arose from not slackening the reins or giving the horse his head as 

 he went up to the leap, and particularly at the moment of rising at it. The 

 gentleman was perhaps trying the manoBUvre called lifting horses at their leaps, 

 which can only be successfully practised by the very first horsemen. In no case, 

 however, is it of the least service, and too frequently is it productive of mischief. 

 A horse, when left to himself, lowers his head immediately before rising at his 

 leap, and this movement is the perfection of the leap. B3' this he unties or 

 gathers himself up for the spring or bound, and whatever prevents the animal 

 from thus compressing, as it were, his elastic energy must counteract the very 

 effect it was so injuriously meant to produce. We loitered in the immediate 

 vicinity of Radburne so much longer than necessary that we lost all trace of 

 the fox, and ultimately trotted away to other covers. 



The writer then goes on to say how hounds drew 

 Sedley Gorse, a likely place, and a favourite one with the 

 late Lord Vernon, but they did not find. He describes an 

 odd-looking sportsman, of whom he says :— 



He was mounted on what I should have taken for an old carriage horse 

 rather than what I should have taken for a prime hunter. Instead of breeches 

 and boots he displayed a pair of monstrous duck trousers with other habiliments, 

 etc., equally out of the common way, and therefore I regarded him altogether as 

 an extraordinary character, some mighty but not well-defined member of the 

 chase. 



However, this gentleman was a desperately hard 

 rider, in spite of his queer get up. The writer, " T.," 

 winds up with — 



There was a good field. Amongst the sportsmen appeared Sir C. Constable, 

 Mr. Poole (sic). Captain Ramsey, Mr. Every, Dr. Fergusson, many gentlemen 

 from the town of Derby, and, amongst this number, that enthusiastic fox-hunter, 

 Mr. Brearey, and also Mr. Statham, and I embrace this opportunity of acknow- 

 ledjrinp: the civil attention which I received from the last-named gentleman. — T. 



