MY FIRST PONY. 23 



the road between Ilarliiigton and Dawley wall. We 

 were not with hounds ; but they told me to ride over 

 the fence, from the road into the field. Puncli did 

 not approve of leaving their horses ; but I put him at 

 the bank, and unwillingly he jumped, but not far 

 enough. He consequently, came back into the ditcli, 

 and my brothers said, " I scuttled up the ditch, for 

 twenty yards, like a young wild-duck or flapper," evi- 

 dently under the idea that Punch was still coming on 

 me. It was this that roused their laughter. I hunted 

 on Punch with Westbrook's harriers, occasionally 

 seeing them turn out a bag fox, till he resigned, and 

 then with my brother's harriers ; afterwards two or 

 three of them kept harriers, jointly, or in turns, at 

 Cranford, and still the chase kept on. About this 

 time, old Tom Oldaker, "wdio had been my father's 

 huntsman, but who then hunted Mr. Combe's lioiuids 

 from the Gerrard's Cross Kennel, and which, from 

 my fatlier having hunted that countr}^, were still 

 called "The old Berkeley," was told to get me a 

 hunter. Tom sold us a mare, neat enough to look 

 at, but about as much of a hunter as any " Lady- 

 killer " in London ; as bad a thing to mount a 

 young hand on as could well be selected. I rode her 

 with mv brother's harriers for some time, and when 

 she became stumped up I got another. This was a 

 thoroughbred l^jrse, called Hertford, with one eye, 

 and with him I was out of the frying-pan into the 

 fire, for, rearardinq; him as a hunter for a be^'inner, he 

 was ten times worse than the mare. He had the pe- 

 culiarity of always turning his tail to the fences, if 

 checked to let horse or hounds go before, and then, 

 when the time came for him to go, he shut his only 

 eye, and, wheeling with a rush, dashed at the spot 



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