118 THE COMPLETE SPORTSMAN 



vres that at any moment the spectators antici- 

 pated seeing Boanerges burst into flame. As 

 the saddle came round for the forty-eighth time 

 Lord Porpentine declined the wit's offer in some- 

 what curt language, and, with that iron nerve 

 which was truly characteristic of the man, per- 

 sisted in what was obviously a hopeless task. 

 The situation was mercifully saved by the girths 

 breaking, when both saddle and rider were 

 hurled to the ground. 



4. 



The tale of how, on another occasion, poor 

 Boanerges very nearly met with a premature 

 and untimely death is one that has been told 

 in every handbook on hunting ever published. 

 This does not, however, appear to me to be a 

 sufficient reason for omitting to reprint it in 

 these pages. 



It was while Lord Porpentine was hunting 

 six days a week in the Pugsley country, making 

 his headquarters at Market Bushforth, that the 

 incident occurred to which I allude. Hounds had 

 found at Grinley Covert, and were running fast 

 over grass, with Lord Porpentine, on Boanerges, 

 as usual close behind them. Through Bumpington 

 they streamed, across the valley of Stanley Gait- 

 worth, by Pulkinghorne Wood, past Compton 



