First Whipper-in. 187 



good grey cob, and was fond of telling a " kettle yarn " about 

 how he jumped a road and two hedges on him, and the 

 fright he got, when in passing over the road, he saw three 

 prostrate red-coats lying beneath him, and heard their 

 mutterings and groans ascending ; but I was always a bit 

 jealous of this story of George's and I think that he was 

 riding his celebrated mount, " Nightmare," at the time ! 

 When " Omega " became the property of Mr. R. F. 

 Trenholm, George travelled the country with him, and is 

 still to be seen about the roads when hounds meet near 

 Fishburn or Holdforth. 



About this time Mr. John Charlton, the celebrated artist, 

 who painted Mr. Harvey's presentation picture, used to come 

 out and enjoy a bit of sport with us. He rode a little 

 chestnut mare of cobby stamp, about fifteen hands high, and 

 a goodish performer. One day in the Sadberge country he 

 rode with his nose in my pocket most of the day, though I 

 was on " Stewardess," whose jumping powers had no end, 

 but it was late in the afternoon before he was able to 

 realise what he was taking on, as when hounds ran hard at 

 night I gave him the benefit of a black bath in an old 

 moaty brook between Sadberge and Barmpton. He and his 

 mare came out black as sloes, and Mr. Appleby wisely pulled 

 up when he saw what colour he was going to be painted, 

 and recommended the artist to take a wider berth of me 

 in future, which advice he appeared to follow. 



Perhaps I had better get on to a day or two's hunting 

 now, and I must briefly refer to April 11th, 1883, as a 

 disastrous day, as poor old " Layman " (the second hound in 

 Mr. Harvey's presentation picture) fell down dead after 

 picking up some poison. We missed him, of course, at 

 once, but didn't find him until the next day, when we 



