158 NIMROD'S HUNTING TOUR 



words. If this renowned sage had lived in the present day, he would 

 have had plenty of custom among the hard-riding Meltonians, as 

 broken arms and collar-bones are accidents of frequent occurrence. 

 On meeting my old friend Captain Stuart (brother to Sir Simeon) 

 the other day, with his arm in a sling, I asked him how it happened. 

 " I got a fall," said he, " and seventeen men rode over me, and broke 

 my arm in two places!" That capital sportsman Mr. George 

 Marriott, the draper, whom I have known and admired as a first- 

 rate judge ever since I first hunted in Leicestershire, was walking 

 about with his arm disabled — having dislocated his shoulder, and 

 otherwise injured the limb. 



When on the subject of falls, I may be allowed to mention the 

 universal regret expressed at Melton for the serious injury that befell 

 Mr. Ealph Lambton, when riding after his own hounds. Mr. T. A. 

 Smith also had a very severe fall this winter, which was thus 

 described to me, in a letter from a master of fox-hounds: — "Tom 

 Smith has had a terrible fall, by which he received a blow on his 

 head that half finished him ; but he is now better, and at it again." 

 It is asserted, that from the many impracticable places this gallant 

 rider attempts, on horses not always with the jump left in them, he 

 gets from sixty to a hundred falls every year with hounds. Courage 

 is not only to be seen on the rampart, on the deck, or in the ranks, 

 but is a very necessary ingredient in a man who rides hard over 

 Leicestershire. 



When on the subject of nerve,- and to show that the old adage of 

 "like master like man" is sometimes verified, I will relate the 

 following anecdote. — When Jack Shirley was whipper-in to Mr. 

 Smith, he was riding an old horse called Gadsby (not much the 

 better for having been many years ridden by his master) over one of 

 the worst fields in Leicestershire for a blown horse — between Tilton 

 and Somerby — abounding] with large ant-hills and deep-holding 

 furrows. The old horse was going along at a good slapping pace, 

 with his head quite loose, and down hill at the time, whilst Jack was 

 in the act of putting a lash to his whip, having a large open clasp 

 knife hetioeen his teeth at the time I 



We might be almost put to it to find a better proof of nerve than 

 what I have just related ; but the following is not an every-day 



