176 Reminiscences of & 



to Foxhunting succeed best in that line when they take 

 it up, and I need only mention the noble Marquis of 

 Londonderry, Colonel Sadler, and Sir Robert Ropner to 

 prove the truth of this. 



A rare thruster in the " eighties " was Mr. William 

 Briggs, who got some good cattle when he saw the kind 

 of sport we were having about 1882 and 1883. One of 

 his best horses was a bay called " Peter," a very fine 

 galloping and clever horse, which I think he afterwards 

 sold to Sir William Eden, for no doubt a stiffish price. I 

 remember a good day in the Kelloe country about this time, 

 when we ran for over two hours, and my horse's tail was 

 going round like a windmill; but Mr. Briggs and "Peter" 

 were sailing away as if they had just started, and I ven- 

 tured to remark to him that I would like to exchange 

 horses ! 



Mr. Appleby of Ashfield House, Greatham, was one of a 

 lot of keen foxhunters from the east country, which 

 included Mr. Fisher, Mr. John Beach and his friend Mr. 

 Baxter, and also a good sporting farmer or two, such as 

 Mr. Robert Stephenson, of Brierton, who sowed the new 

 covert at Brierton (on the late Mr. Furness's farm) for us, 

 and had a very useful brown horse, old " Gameboy," whom 

 I once rode in a farmer's race at Sedgefield, and got an 

 awful cropper through being cannoned against at the open 

 ditch, the first year that open ditches were introduced ; 

 it was old " Pigeon," that belonged to Charley Robinson, 

 the sporting farmer of the " Brakes," that knocked me 

 over — she fell and came right underneath my horse's legs, 

 as she was coming crossways on ; there was three of us 

 down, but though a good deal shaken none of us were 

 seriously injured. But for this accident I think the old 



