My First Sieepie-chaser. 75 



appear a little shabby when scrutinised through the eye-glass of 

 a swell, but they are all good. The neat lolb. hunting saddle 

 may have seen some service, but the model and the fit are perfect j 

 and the side loop on each flap for the surcingle to pass through 

 prove that it is not only in the hunting field where that saddle is 

 required to do battle. We all know that nothing sets off a screw 

 so well as a neat-fitting saddle. A plain dark hunting martingall, 

 and a heavy snaffle with broad reins, which look as if they would 

 hold an elephant, complete about as workmanlike a turn-out as is 

 to be met with at that covert side. 



The dress of the man is in perfect keeping with the rest of the 

 picture. The broad, baggy, brown cords, meet a pair of long, 

 plain, faultless jack-boots ; a tight pepper-and-salt surtout, buttoned 

 close up to the throat, reveals in front a few inches of a long, striped 

 groom's waistcoat ; a head, which seems as if made expressly for 

 charging through a bullfinch, is "tied on" by a neat check scarf j 

 while a strong napless hat shades a handsome, close-shaved, weather- 

 beaten face, in which sturdy resolution and good-nature strive for 

 the mastery. His riding weight may be about eleven stone ; and 

 his broad shoulders, sinewy arms, and hard brown gloveless hands, 

 added to the firm short seat, all form the very beau-ideal of a 

 cross-country jock ; and although there are perhaps scores of better- 

 mounted men in that field, many a scrutinising eye is turned towards 

 him as he quietly wends his way to that corner of the covert where 

 he expects the fox to break ; and more than one hard rider inwardly 

 wonders where the deuce Tom picked up that " goodish-like horse, 

 what he gave for him, and where his fault lies " for the very fact 

 of being in such hands condemns him at once. And well may they 

 scrutinise this nag, for he is destined ere long to be a sharp thorn in 

 many of their sides j as on this occasion Tom is mounted on " my 

 First Steeple-chaser." For the first few fields after they have gone 

 away the screw leads them, and the way in which he came over that 

 ox fence in the corner of the field leading from the woods is in the 

 mouth of every one. However, it does not suit his rider, on this 

 first appearance with a new performer, to let all the field see where 



