MR. STATHAM. 173 



quarters. He carried Tom sixteen seasons, and, wlien 

 he died, he was full of tallow as white as a sperm candle. 

 A very stout horse he was too, but stopped, done to a 

 turn, in Kedleston Park that day — stopped and neighed. 

 The second horse, the one that died, was bred by Sir 

 William FitzHerbert — a chestnut horse by Knight of the 

 Whistle (owned by the racing Lord Chesterfield), a rare, 

 good-looking quality horse, up to fifteen or sixteen stone. 

 Mr. Henry Evans bought him of Sir William at the King's 

 Head, Derby, could not ride him, and eventually Mr. Hugo 

 Meynell Ingram got him for fifty pounds. They had him 

 out hunting two or three times and he went lame, and 

 was so for two or three years. Gentlemen did not mind 

 keeping a valuable horse for a bit in those days," he added, 

 with a quizzing look at the writer. " They weren't so 

 impatient, and did not expect a horse to be sound in a 

 week. They blistered him for lameness in the roundbone 

 and messed about with him, but did no good. At last 

 they said I could take him in hand and see what I could 

 do. I was to be at Hoar Cross by ten o'clock. It was 

 about a minute past the hour as I rode up. Old Tom was 

 as punctual as the clock. 'Just saved your bacon, my 

 lad,* he said. ' How so ? ' I said. ' Why, I'd made 

 up my mind to shoot him, if you were not here by ten 

 o'clock, and then I said I'd give him five minutes' law.' 

 I put in a couple of setons — we had to throw him — how 

 he did fight ! — and he got quite sound, and Tom rode 

 him for two or three seasons, till he died in this run, and 

 they say old Tom cried over him. 



*' Mr. Frank Wilmot ? Oh yes. He rode very hard. 

 1 remember a farmer — you'd remember his name — what 

 was it ? I've forgotten. But he lived at the Spath farm. 

 He said he was standing on the hill by Longford Rectory, 

 and he heard the hounds coming. And he looked across 

 the valley and saw three men galloping for dear life, and 

 he said he never saw any men riding ' so resolutely and 

 so determinedly ' one against the other as these three, 

 and they were Mr. Frank Wilmot, Sir William and Colonel 



