142 Reminiscences of a 



Thinking at first that he meant it, I said, "Oh, she'll do 

 for me yet a bit, sir." He said, " She jumps too clean now." 

 She used to clear the places out when I first got her, and 

 was very handy for making roads. As a matter of fact 

 she'd banged her legs once or twice, and came to the con- 

 clusion that it was easier to go over the top than through, 

 as many others find with practice. This reminds me of 

 another similar saying to me by Mr. Harvey, about the 

 same period, though a few months earlier in the year (pro- 

 bably January, 1877). We had met somewhere about New- 

 beggin, and during a fast run of about thirty-five or forty 

 minutes, after passing Sadberge Grange, came across some 

 snow in a deep ditch towards us. My mount was old 

 " Patience," a brown mare that Mr. Harvey afterwards gave 

 to Charley Robinson of the Brakes, near Sedgefield; she 

 was a capital fencer, a very good scrambler, if required, and 

 went at it as though she meant getting safely over, which 

 she did, into a plough field, where hounds were coursing 

 their fox up a furrow, which took my attention away for 

 the moment from Mr. Harvey. The old gentleman's heart 

 failed him in the last stride, and he whipped his brown 

 mare " Polly " (the mare on which his picture was painted) 

 round, and made for the gate ; to open this he dismounted 

 and was thrown out a bit, there being only the two of us, 

 and Claxon near hounds. After coursing their fox up the 

 field, hounds crossed the Sadberge and Longnewton road, 

 also the Stockton and Darlington back-road, and we killed 

 him in an orchard close to Sadberge. In a few minutes, 

 Mr. Harvey came up and passed the remark that " I 'd 

 served him such a trick that had never been played upon 

 him in his Hfe before." I thought it was something serious, 

 and begged his pardon, and said I was very sorry indeed if 



