192 THE LIFE OF A SPORTSMAN 



hunted by a young farmer with his father's harriers, over 

 a brook nearly, if not quite, as wide as the one which now 

 unfortunately arrested his progress ; so he at once deter- 

 mined on riding at it. And he certainly gave him a fair 

 chance ; for it was not until he had turned his head to 

 the wind, and thereby enabled him to recover his strength 

 a little, that he put his intentions into execution. Taking 

 him, then, about twenty yards from its banks, he put him 

 manfully at the brook, which, as we say of the grave, 

 only yawned to receive him. Whether it was that he 

 wanted the excitement of the Amstead harriers, or whether 

 the Melton cover-hack pace was quite beyond his mark, 

 it is hard to determine, but this much is certain : despite 

 of the resolute manner in which he was ridden at it ; 

 namely, with two good digs of the spurs on starting, a 

 refresher, when near the bank, by the whip, and a " Come 

 up " at rising, he only landed his fore legs on the bank, 

 falling backwards into the water, with our hero under- 

 neath him, who might be said to have been anywhere but 

 in clover at the time. The upshot, however, was that, 

 having, after a lapse of nearly half an hour, got his horse 

 on the bank again, he retraced his steps to Melton, on 

 no very agreeable terms with himself, but with a full 

 determination to know beforehand to whom he should in 

 future look as pilots to direct his course over Leicestershire, 

 for in this instance he had made a sad mistake. 



He had got into the wake not only of two of the best 

 men in the hunt, the afterwards great Tom Smith and Mr. 

 Vansittart, but, as is often the case with Meltonians who 

 possess large studs, they were not themselves on cover- 

 hacks, but on first-rate hunters, whose pipes they were 

 amusing themselves with opening, against their next day's 

 work with hounds, instead of leaving that task to their 

 servants, who, as they had known to their cost, could not 

 perform it so well. 



As might be expected, many inquiries were made 

 respecting the absence of " young Raby," as he was called ; 

 for his having been introduced by Mr. Somerby, an 

 influential character in the hunt, together with his name 

 and connections, had rendered him an object of notice, 

 even with the Melton men, an honour not very often 

 conferred on persons of still greater pretensions. But 

 they liked the looks of young Raby. There was some- 

 thing manly and sportsmanlike about him : in short, they 



