Gentlemen Riders 



had christened the " Leary Cove," as slightly difficult to 

 translate. 



Singularly enough, though no stranger to the accidents 

 inseparable from the career of a cross-country horseman, 

 especially such a " bruiser " as he was, it was not till long 

 after he had retired from the saddle that Captain Becher 

 met with the worst accident which ever happened to him. 



He was seated carelessly on an old mare in the sowing field 

 at his friend's, Ben Way's, at Denham, when the animal, putting 

 her head down to feed out of the hopper, caught the eye in 

 her bridle, and in her fright, suddenly rearing, threw Becher 

 heavily, breaking his thigh in two places. Notwithstanding 

 his injury he was the coolest man on the ground, himself giving 

 directions for the unhinging of a gate to carry him away. 



In society, Captain Becher was a great favourite, his great 

 fund of anecdote and cheery spirits rendering him the very 

 best of company. In early life he would astonish his friends 

 by feats of strength and agility, such as running round the 

 room on the wainscot edges, and up high walls, and kicking the 

 ceiling : whilst his imitations of animals, farmyard and other- 

 wise, were so good as to suggest the presence of a zoological 

 collection in his thorax. 



Although from the number and variety of ill-tempered 

 brutes he broke into shape, as well as from some of the 

 punishing races he rode, he may at times have been accused 

 of cruelty, no charge could have been more unfounded. He 

 simply knew exactly what his horse was capable of, and made 

 him do it, and that he was ever ready to champion the cause of 

 the noble animal, worthily described as " Man's best friend," 

 the hiding he once administered to a coal porter in the Black- 

 friars Road, whom he found unmercifully kicking and ill-treating 

 a horse, is abundant proof. 



8 



