174 SPORTING STORIES 



Templer had failed to hit, he discovered that his mare's 

 forelegs had been caught by the reins, and that every time 

 she struck out she jerked her head under water. To 

 plunge into the stream and cut the reins was the work of 

 a second, when the brave beast jumped on her legs. 

 Templer vaulted into the saddle and rode off in pursuit of 

 the hounds. 



A fever he had caught at Eton had destroyed his hair, 

 and he always wore a sand-coloured wig. Wig and hat, 

 however, were carried away to sea, and he was discovered 

 scudding away under bare poles ; nor, like the moss- 

 trooper of old, did he "slacken his rein or stint to ride" 

 till he had picked up the fox and bagged him alive. 



The spirit of the fox-hunting enthusiast nothing can 

 quell, and it has never been better exemplified than in the 

 case of Joe Maiden, the famous huntsmen of the Cheshire 

 Hounds. One day, while giving some directions to his 

 boiler-man about the hounds' food, Joe slipped with both 

 legs into the copper where the mess was seething : he was 

 out again in an instant, and apparently little injured ; but 

 when the stocking of his right leg came to be removed 

 part of the calf literally came away with it, leaving the 

 bone exposed. The torture he endured after that was 

 excruciating. The leg was broken once, if not twice, when 

 he was out with his hounds. Pieces of the bone were 

 continually coming away, until the limb seemed only kept 

 together by ligaments and diachylon plaster. And yet, 

 under all this martyrdom, riding with one stirrup shorter 

 than the other, Joe Maiden often hunted six days a week 

 and did not close an eye all night. Each year that 

 followed he had to add an inch to the heel of his boot, 

 until, catching a chill one wet morning, mortification set 

 in and Joe had to part with his leg to save his life. This 

 was in November 1855, ^"^ ^y Christmas he was so wasted 

 that his wife could carry him from room to room. How- 

 ever, he furnished himself with two artificial legs, one for 

 walking, the other for riding ; for he found that he could 

 not ride with the walking leg, and could not walk with the 

 riding leg. At last he got the " Patent American Leg," 

 which weighed only 3^ lbs. (without its appurtenances), 



