362 Saddle and Sirloin. 



the worse for his bath ; and Godwin, on the pretext 

 of getting him measured for a new saddle at Stamford, 

 soon after attended the great Cribb and Molyneux 

 meet at Thistleton Gap. 



On leaving his lordship's service, he went back to 

 Elton, where he broke young horses, and there carried 

 out a notion which had long haunted him, of going 

 abroad with Lord Strathaven, afterwards Marquis of 

 Huntley, and Mr. Harvey Aston. His dancing abili- 

 ties had great scope while travelling through Spain 

 and Portugal ; and, in spite of his memories of Van- 

 dyke and Taffy, he took quite kindly to the muleteer 

 business, and enjoyed his new life all the more from 

 one or two rencontres with banditti. However, the 

 yellow jack cut his roaming short, and the doctors 

 ordered him home, Mr. Aston giving him a very plea- 

 sant berth at Aston Hall, in whose stalls he found 

 Minister and some other capital hunters standing ab- 

 solutely idle. He kept them in leaping-pole exercise 

 in summer, and sent them along very merrily for some 

 seasons while Will Head hunted the Cheshire ; and 

 taught his son to imitate him on a pony, which he had 

 got pretty sound by keeping him perpetually in bran- 

 mash boots. Mr. Aston's next visit to England was 

 not of long duration ; and when he left, he placed a 

 mysterious letter in Godwin's hands, with injunctions 

 that he was not to read it unless he heard of his death. 

 After a long absence, his master returned, without 

 notice, in the dead of night, knocked up Godwin, and 

 burnt the letter ; and then told him that the horses, 

 some of which proved worth 300 to 400 guineas each, 

 were to be sold. 



For the next nine years Godwin stayed in the 

 county as the landlord of the " Ring of Bells," a great 

 house for funerals and weddings at Daresbury, where 

 he broke ladies' horses so artistically that their fair 

 owners would have it that he was one of the " Whis- 

 perer" family, of whose Irish prowess so much had 



