My First Steeple-chaser. 83 



each other, as it were, on the road. I was soon out of my saddle, 

 and Tom in my place. The old gentleman hopped two or three 

 times round the horse to look him well over, but never spoke a 

 word ; he hardly cared to look into his mouth. His quick eye soon 

 detected where the screw was loose, directly Tom walked him 

 round him, down the gravel walk, and " There, take him round to 

 the stable, and come in and have some breakfast," was the only sen- 

 tence he uttered till we got into the snug little parlour, which I so 

 well remember, with the sporting pictures arranged round the walls, 

 the bookshelves filled with odd volumes of the sporting magazines, 

 and the perfect museum of hunting-whips, jockey- whips, and other 

 sporting paraphernalia in the different corners. And then the cheer- 

 ing, substantial breakfast ! I soon told the history of the horse ; and 

 although I had rather exceeded the regulation price, the old man did 

 not seem to think that I had done wrong. We all visited the stable 

 after breakfast, and had a careful examination of the horse, who, I 

 was sorry to observe, was now pulled out as lame as ever. Not- 

 withstanding all their knowledge, not one of the three could decide 

 exactly where the horse was lame. The vet. fancied the lameness 

 laid in the pastern, and was for firing at once j the nephew fancied 

 it was in the hock ; while the old man declared he was lame all 

 round. Still they all agreed that he was a very likely horse, and 

 the vet. quite deemed that it lay within the powers of his science 

 to bring him round. 



Now, it so happened that in our hunt we had an annual steeple- 

 chase every March, of 5/. entrance, with ^o/. added, and it was the 

 ambition of every hard-riding member of the hunt to win this 

 steeple-chase. The old man had attempted it twice and failed, not- 

 withstanding all the powerful assistance of his nephew, who was 

 certainly by far the best cross-country race-rider in the hunt. He 

 fancied that he saw in this horse the very thing he had long been 

 looking for ; and without aspiring quite so high as the coachman, 

 his late owner, he still thought him good enough to win this race, 

 if he only once came right ; and the old man was not deceived. 

 One of the conditions of this I2st. steeple-chase was, that every 



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