2i6 The Book of the Horse. 



deer, had been turned into the field. A joint-stock company of pony-catchers, headed by the 

 champion wrestler of the district — a hawk-nosed, fresh-complexioned, rustic Don Juan — stood 

 ready to be hired, at the moderate rate of sixpence per pony, caught and dehvered. One 

 carried a bundle of new halters ; the others, warmed by a liberal distribution of beer, seemed 

 to stand 



' Like greylioiinds on the slip, 



as much inspired by the fun as the sixpence. When the word was given, the first step was 

 to drive a herd into the lowest corner of the field, in as compact a mass as possible. The bay, 

 grey, or chestnut, from that hour doomed to perpetual slavery and exile from his native hills, was 

 pointed out by the nervous, anxious purchaser. Three wiry fellows crept catlike among the 

 mob, sheltering behind some tame cart-horses. On a mutual signal they rushed on the devoted 

 animal ; two, one bearing a halter, strove to fling each one arm round its neck, and with one 

 hand to grasp its nostrils, while the insidious third, clinging to the flowing tail, tried to throw 

 the poor quadruped off its balance. Often they were baffled in the first effort, for with one 

 wild spring the pony would clear the whole lot, and flying with streaming mane and tail across 

 the brook up the field, leave the whole work to be recommenced. Sometimes, when the feat 

 was cleverly performed, pony and pony-catchers were to be seen all rolling on the ground to- 

 gether, the pony yelling, snorting, and fighting with his fore-feet, the men clinging on like the 

 Lapithae and Centaurs, and how escaping crushed ribs or broken legs it is impossible to 

 imagine. On one occasion a fine brown stallion dashed away, with two plucky fellows hanging 

 on to his mane. Rearing, plunging, fighting with his fore-feet, away he bounded down a de- 

 clivity among the huge rocks, amid the encouraging cheers of the spectators. For a moment 

 the contest was doubtful, so tough were the sinews and so determined the grip of Davy, the 

 champion wrestler; but the steep bank of the brook, down which the brown stallion recklessly 

 plunged, was too much for human efforts. In a moment they all went together into the brook, 

 but the pony up first, leaped the opposite bank, and galloped away, whinnj-ing in short-lived 

 triumph. 



" After a series of such contests, well worth the study of artists not content with pale 

 copies from marbles or casts, the difficulty of haltering these snorting steeds, equal in spirit 

 and probably in size to those which drew the car of Boadicea, was diminished by all those 

 uncaught being driven back to the pound, and there, not without furious battles, one by one 

 enslaved. 



" Yet even when haltered the conquest was by no means concluded. Some refused to stir, 

 others started off at such a pace as speedily brought the holder of the halter on his nose. 

 One respectable old gentleman, in grey stockings and knee-breeches, lost his animal in much 

 less time than it took him to extract the sixpence from his knotted purse. 



" Yet in all these fights there was little display of vice ; it was pure fright on the part of 

 the ponies that made them struggle so. A few days' confinement in a shed, a few carrots, 

 with a little salt, and gentle treatment, reduces the wildest of the three-year-olds to docility. 

 When older they are more difficult to manage. It was a pretty sight to view them led away, 

 splashing through the brook — conquered, but not yet subdued. 



" In the course of the evening a little chestnut stallion, 12 hands (or 4 feet) in height, 

 jumped, at a standing jump, over the bars out of a pound upwards of five feet from the ground, 

 only just touching the top rail with his hind feet." 



Simon's Bath was too far from the rail to continue long to be the site of these sales. They 

 were removed to Banipton, where the ponies were sold by auction in the fair — Bampton Fair 



