376 RIDING TO HOUNDS 



taken by that extraordinary horse Baronet. Some years since Mr. 

 Mytton backed him to clear nine yards over hm'dles placed at some 

 distance from each other ; hut he performed the task so often with 

 him before the appointed time, that he refused it then and lost his 

 master's money. 



Baronet is a mean-looking horse, with only one eye ; but Natm'e 

 has made amends for that, by giving him more than one life, or he 

 would never have survived the last seven years which he has been 

 in Mr. Mytton's possession. He may be said to be as stout as steel ; 

 and if there was rank among brutes, thh Baronet should have been 

 raised to the peerage. 



Mr. Mytton has no doubt put the powers of the horse to the test 

 as much as any man in England, or in any other country ; and it is 

 a common answer to the question w^hether such a fence is prac- 

 ticable, that " it would do for Mytton." In Lord Bradford's Park, 

 when he hunted the Shiffnal country, he cleared one of his Lord- 

 ship's deer-hurdles, upwards of six feet high ; and, what is more 

 surprising, he covered the space of eight yards in length at the same 

 time. This was accomplished on a horse called" The Hero," which 

 he purchased of me for 500 guineas, and was the same that leaped 

 the gate with him in Mr. Jellico's grounds in Shropshire, the height 

 of which was seven feet. I have possessed better brook- jumpers 

 than " The Hero," as he would always make a trifling stop at them ; 

 but he was the liirjhcst leaper I ever was master of in my life. 



In my experience of riding to hounds, I have observed that nothing 

 tends so much to make a field select as a good rasping brook. In 

 the first place, many horses will not face it, and in the next, many 

 men will not ride at it ; and to l)e good at water is one of the first 

 and most essential qualifications in each. Even a hrooMing, with 

 soft banks, and horses a little abroad, often creates no small confusion 

 among those who are not mounted on hunters. '■ A fall at a brook 

 is generally an awkward one, both to the rider and to his horse : 

 the latter is very liable to strain himself ; and the former, if not hurt, 

 is sure to be spoiled for the day, exclusive of affording some amuse- 

 ment to his friends. When the famous Dick Knight hunted 



* .\ll hunters aru liorses. but all luirses are nut liiuitei-s. 



