HORSES AND HOUNDS. 231 



not quite beaten ; and his friend " Beauty " was not a little de- 

 lighted at the idea of being bear leader to so renowned a sports- 

 man as Bob, little dreaming for what ])urpose he was allowed 

 to hold this prominent position. Tliey had travelled for some 

 time thus cosily together, when sudi a poser presented itself 

 that " Beauty " was staggered at its appearance, and would have 

 turned tail had he been so permitted. Turning round to Bob, 

 he expressed his unwillingness to keep the first place any 

 longer, and doubted his power of accomplishing the hard task 

 set before him. " Oh ! it is nothing particular for a light 

 weight like you," cried Bob ; " you are as sure to get over it as 

 I am to be pounded ; go along, it wont do to be craning when 

 the hounds are running into their fox. Go along, I say, and 

 don't be chicken-hearted, just now, at any rate." He needed no 

 more. Poor " Beauty" plucked up his courage, and went at it, 

 as men do sometimes in desperation, with his eyes shut : and 

 when he ofjened them again, he discovered himself lying at the 

 bottom of a ditch the other side, deep enough to hold a team of 

 horses, with his gallant old grey just uncomfortably enough 

 atop of him ! " Beauty," as it may reasonably be expected, 

 sung out as lustily as he could (his voice being at no time par- 

 ticularly strong, and just then, from the superincumbent pres- 

 sure upon his respiratory organs, rather a squeak) to his friend 

 Bob for assistance out of ]iis perilous, and by no means enviable, 

 situation ; and I should imagine Bob's rejoinder must have 

 been highly consolatory to his friend in his awkward predica- 

 ment. " Lie still, ' Beauty,' or it will be the worse for you," 

 saying which, he crammed his horse at the place, and cleared 

 ditch, " Beauty," and the old grey altogether. Bob, however, 

 though in a great hurry, turned round to another following, and 

 consigned his friend to his care, and a team of horses was soon 

 in requisition to extricate ''Beauty's" horse, as well as others. 

 Amongst these a dandy of the first water stood surveying his 

 prostrate steed through his eye-glass, — " Eli ! upon my life this 

 is an awkward affair, — 150 guineas' worth of good horse-flesh at 

 the bottom of that infernal dyke, heels upwards. Lucky, how- 

 ever, I ain't under him, — spoilt my dancing for the next month 

 to come ; bad enough with this wiper across nose and cheek — 

 wouldn't face the gals in this plight for a cool hundred. Con- 

 found these agriculturists, with their drains and dykes ! Hil- 

 loa-ho I — Hurrah ! Farmer, lend us a hand, my fine fallow : 

 quick, will you, or Nosegay will be stifled." In another spot 

 lay the extended form of as good a mare as ever entered a 

 hunting-field, but this was destined to be her last. Her owner 

 was more remarkable for the attention he paid to his own 



