MR. WALTER BODEN. 203 



the pick of the basket, and probably Mr. Hodgson, of Small- 

 wood Manor, who then lived at Tixall, would agree with 

 them. At any rate, he thought enough of him to give four 

 hundred and twenty pounds for him, though the horse had 

 a big hock and some other detriment, which would have 

 prevented a vet. from passing him. But he carried Mr. 

 Hodgson in such a way that he probably never grudged a 

 penny of it. From him he passed to Mr. Harvey Bayly, 

 who rode him till he was twenty, and won no end of 

 prizes with him into the bargain. 



General was another grey. Sir R. FitzHerbert remem- 

 bers him jumping the Sudbury Park palings. 



But perhaps the most interesting horse of all was 

 Brandy Wine, the savage. He was a blood, brown horse, 

 bought from Captain Dawson, of Barrow Hill, for twenty - 

 five pounds. The horse had never had his coat off, nor been 

 in a loose box, so irreclaimable a savage was he. But in 

 his new quarters, they discovered that if a man went in 

 with a bridle in his hand, the horse would come quietly up 

 to have it put on. So they had rings on each side of the 

 box, and clipped him and dressed him with a watering 

 bridle on, and the reins attached to the rings on each side. 

 There are a few people who can still remember the way 

 this horse went, having all the best of it, in a brilliant 

 gallop from Sutton Gorse, till, nearly the end, by Etwall, 

 before the Great Northern was made, his rider had a crack 

 at the big brook there. It was a tremendously big place, 

 wider than the Foston mill-race. The horse scotched a bit 

 on taking off, and just got over, when the bank gave way 

 and let him in. With great difficulty he got out on the 

 wrong side, and there he lay, with Mr. Michael Bass stand- 

 ing looking at him. 



"Is he all right ? " his owner called out, having made 

 his way round by a bridge. 



"Oh yes." 



" Then, why does he lie there as if he was dead ? " 



However, a smack with his whip proved Brandy Wine 

 to be worth a good many dead ones. 



