The Lady Rider 237 



were nearly two hundred riders present, whose pink coats 

 lent an exhilarating colour to the picture. It so happened 

 when we got off that I found myself striding along in the 

 wake of the most artistic and accomplished lady rider I had 

 ever seen. Besides a perfect figure, her seat and carriage 

 were faultless, and she seemed to have an unusual amount of 

 horse-sense or horsemanship, that most pleasing because one 

 of the least frequent gifts among women who ride to 

 hounds. Do what I would, I had to be content with a view 

 of her back. We had a glorious gallop of twenty minutes 

 or more straight away over beautiful meadows, as thrilling 

 and brilliant a charge as one could wish, hunters to right 

 of us, hunters to left of us. On rode my pilot, and well ; 

 bullfinch and ditch, timber and brook I never had such 

 a lead in my life. A check came none too soon, for our 

 horses were done to a turn. 



"Who is that lady?" I asked a farmer-looking chap, 

 pointing to my pilot. He looked at me from head to foot. 



" Don't you know who that is?" 



" No ; I am a stranger here." 



" Bless you, sir ! But every one in England knows that 

 lady, or ought to. That 's the Countess of Warwick." 

 Whose face, I must confess, was as beautiful as her figure, 

 which was, in turn, as perfect as her riding. 



I pulled out of the run to take the three-o'clock train for 

 Warwick, and had a charming visit of sight-seeing at the 

 castle. As the guide was showing me through, I asked to 

 see some relics of Richard, Earl of Warwick, of whom I had 

 read in Bulwer Lytton's "Last of the Barons." 



"They are in the living-rooms," he replied. "If the 



