jack-o'-lantern. 35 



refused. As to the speed of this horse, I need only 

 say that I tried it against a race-horse belonging to 

 my friend, one of those who has left a gap behind 

 him not easily filled, the late Mr. William Locke. 

 Owners rode, and Jack carried the heaviest weight, 

 and beat the race-horse. To such an amount of 

 speed add the most perfect fencing, fast or slow, 

 and an estimation may be formed of Jack's capa- 

 bilities. Anderson, one of the dealers of that name 

 who used to ride right well, and was often out with 

 me, called Jack's powers of going " flying." As to 

 these powers I can also appeal to Colonel Thomas 

 Wood, of the Guards, who was out with me when we 

 enlarged a stag, I think between Cranford and Har- 

 lington, and took him somewhere in the Gerrard's 

 Cross country. It was the day that Jack was 

 seriously injured by the stag, and I remember the 

 complimentary remark made by Colonel Wood on the 

 way in which the horse had gone. The injury Jack re- 

 ceived on that day occurred in this way: — The hounds 

 were running at the haunches of an immensely 

 powerful stag, his antlers left on to the length of a 

 foot, and were going at him full speed down a narrow 

 lane between two high banks, followed closely by me, 

 that I might be ready to save the deer. A turn in 

 the lane shut the stag and hounds for a moment from 

 my view, in which short space of time he turned back 

 among the hounds and reversed his course at the 

 same tremendous pace. He came round the corner 

 of the lane again before I reached it, and I saw that 

 a collision was inevitable. To try to escape it I 

 pulled my horse as close to one of the banks as pos- 

 sible, and slackened speed to the extent the brief 

 passage of events would admit of, but in vain. I 



