PERILS AND PENALTIES 173 



" rate," that, nine times out of ten, the animal was picked 

 up before them without injury. Blood was a finale to which, 

 at home, they were never treated, and yet a harder-driving 

 lot never entered a covert. But as " Nimrod " after his 

 visit to Stover tells us, to show that Mr Templer's hounds 

 can kill foxes when suffered to do so, whilst they were at 

 North Molton, hunting alternate days with Mr Fellowes's 

 or Sir Arthur Chichester's hounds, they killed three brace 

 of foxes in four days. 



And excellent sport these bag-foxes afforded. A favourite 

 " bag-man," who gave them many a good run, was named 

 the " Bold Dragoon." He had been turned out in the Vale 

 of Teigngrace, and crossing the river Teign, then flooded 

 by heavy rains, was leading the pack at a rattling pace in 

 the direction of Ugbrook Park, when the field was brought 

 to a sudden check at sight of a brimming river. The ford, 

 known to a few, was invisible, and the only bridge was 

 more than a mile away. The fate of the " Bold Dragoon " 

 was a certainty if there were no one up to rate the hounds ; 

 and his Colossus mare was scarcely more valued by Templer 

 than that fox. 



" Go for Jew's Bridge," shouted a cautious member of 

 the hunt ; " that's our only chance of catching the hounds." 

 And away went the field helter-skelter in that direction — 

 every man of them except Templer. 



Seeing a flight of rails close to the river bank, and con- 

 cluding they were placed there to prevent cattle from 

 crossing the ford, Templer rode the mare straight at them, 

 thinking to land perhaps up to his girths in the stream. 

 But the spot proved to be one of the deepest pools in the 

 Teign. Horse and rider disappeared ; but the latter, having 

 been an expert swimmer at Eton, soon came to the surface, 

 and, striking out vigorously, gained the opposite bank. 

 But great was his dismay on looking round to find that 

 his mare was nowhere to be seen ; and, for some seconds, 

 Templer felt assured that the horse had been stunned, and 

 had gone to the bottom like a stone. 



Happily, the hoofs first, and then the legs of the animal, 

 gradually appeared above water ; and then, as the body 

 grounded on the gravelly ford twenty yards below, which 



