264 Saddle and Sirloin. 



in direct contrast with pleasure, and the little ferry 

 on the Ure will be remembered, so long as that river 

 rolls its dark waters from the moors to the Ouse, as 

 the scene of the most fearful tragedy in hunting 

 history. 



Yorkshire could hardly believe the sad tidings. 

 The cathedral city was in the very height of her 

 hunting term. There were visitors in plenty, and the 

 Club was full of the doings of Sir Charles on Saltfish 

 or Rosamond, and of news of good sport with Mr. 

 Hall and the Holderness. Four familiar faces were 

 suddenly lacking, and three of them were the very 

 life-blood of the hunt master, crack rider, and first 

 whip. The meet on that fatal day (February 4th) 

 was Stainley, upwards of twenty miles from York, 

 but accessible by rail, and a special train was run on 

 the occasion. Sir Charles soon found a fox, which 

 took them straight for Newby Park, where it crossed 

 the river. He had found, as he thought, the same fox 

 twice before that season, and it had baffled him by 

 the same trick. It was no doubt this double beating 

 which made him rather more keen and less sensible 

 of his danger than usual, for both he and Mr. Lloyd 

 and Mr. Robinson were generally timid and careful 

 in a boat, though hard, and fearless riders as could be 

 across country.* " Bill" or rather -Powter, the first 



* The boat was managed by a cog-wheel, which takes hold of a chain 

 stretched across the river, and it is worked over by hand. This chain, 

 which is of some weight, lies in ordinary times on the bottom of the 

 river, and is picked up by the boat as it goes along ; but when the river 

 is full of water the weight of the chain is off the ground and upon the 

 boat. It is usual in a fresh (i.e. when the water is very high, but 

 within its bounds) to cast the chain adrift, and ferry the boat over in the 

 usual manner, but n this occasion the plan was not resorted to. The 

 chain is on the down-stream side, and the weight of it naturally keeps 

 that side of the boat a little down in the water, and therefore when any 

 extra weight, like a horse, is added on that side, the up-stream side of 

 the boat rises, and the stream rushing down underneath it, sends it right 

 over on the chain side. So it happened on this sad day. 



There was a scrimmage and an " exchange" or two among the horses, 



