180 SPORTING STORIES 



complete health, and not even the slighest touch of lame- 

 ness remained to remind him of his fall. 



The story of this marvellous feat spread like wildfire 

 through the West Indies, and for some months afterwards 

 the negroes drove quite a brisk trade in the sale of portions 

 of the saddle, strips of the horse's hide, and shreds of the 

 Colonel's dress which had been torn off by projecting trees 

 in the terrible descent. The horse was literally smashed 

 to pulp. That I think, is the most marvellous leap on 

 horseback ever made by any man who lived to tell the 

 tale. I had some slight knowledge of Colonel, afterwards 

 General Moore, who was a familiar figure at the Carlton 

 Club more than thirty years ago ; and, from the high 

 character he bore, I have no doubt that his story is, in 

 every particular, strictly true. 



There have been some remarkable jumps of a less 

 sensational character than that of General Moore, but taken 

 in cold blood and with intention. Of these, Chandler's 

 famous leap at Warwick, when he took 39 ft. in his stride, 

 is generally accepted as the biggest on record. But there 

 have been others scarcely less notable. Turnip, a son of 

 PotSos, cleared the height of 5 ft. 10 in. in Phoenix Park, 

 but afterwards far surpassed that feat by leaping over 

 Hyde Park wall at Grosvenor Gate, a height of 6 ft. 6 in., 

 with a drop of 8 ft. on the other side. Cecil Forester, who 

 weighed 14 st., once made an extraordinary jump on his 

 splendid hunter Bernardo; the horse, carrying that welter- 

 weight, cleared a stream 32 ft. across, and landed cleanly 

 on the opposite bank. How fine a horseman Forester was 

 may be gathered from the following : — " When at about half 

 a field's distance from him," writes an eye-witness, " I saw 

 him take each fence as it came. ' That's nothing, at all 

 events,' I repeatedly said to myself But I was as often 

 deceived on coming up to them and finding them very big. 

 And neither Forester nor his horse seemed to exert them- 

 selves any more to get over these strong bullock-fences 

 than they would in clearing a small ditch. But I was told 

 it was all the effect of hand, and not allowing the horse to 

 leap a foot higher or farther than necessary." 



Jack Mytton's feats of jumping on horseback also 



