5 8 In Scarlet and Silk 



by a dear old friend of mine, the horse fell 

 down dead with me. A post-mortem revealed 

 the fact that fatty degeneration of the heart 

 existed, and although, no doubt, the sharp 

 gallop we had just had, and the exertion of 

 jumping fences, did not improve matters, still 

 the horse might well have died even had he 

 been standing in his stable at the time. 



Taken on the whole, I think I feel happier 

 when riding over fences on horses that don't 

 cost any money ! There is such a glorious 

 feeling of irresponsibility about the thing 

 then. 



Without exception, the very fastest hunter 

 I ever owned was a half-worn-out steeple- 

 chase horse, which I bought for fifteen 

 sovereigns. He was fired all round and 

 "dicky" in front; but there seemed to be 

 nothing he would turn his head from, and it 

 never gave him any trouble to gallop down 

 every other horse in the field. He was a 

 very hard puller, and gave me one nasty fall, 

 simply because I could not hold him. 



Every hunting man prol)ably remembers. 



