126 THE SPORT OF KINGS 



as the hunting man would not be much incon- 

 venienced by, might mean a serious pecuniary loss 

 to him. Especially is this the case with a steeple- 

 chase jockey, who might be wanted the day after 

 he got his fall, and perhaps he might lose ^30 or 

 even more by it. So let not the gay youth who, 

 as he thinks, " cuts down " the veteran steeple- 

 chase jockey say that " the old duffer has lost his 

 nerve." 



I have spoken of those men wl^^ riding hard 

 for a couple of seasons or so, dropJJ^ of it alto- 

 gether. Now I come to a man ofvery different 

 stamp. He was perhaps never what is called a 

 bruiser, just rode on steadily, always taking a 

 good place, and always keeping it. I knew a 

 man of this kind who was very difficult indeed to 

 tackle for many years ; then he lost his nerve, 

 and though he occasionally jumped a fence — even 

 a big one — he never "opened out" as it were. 

 But he loved hunting, and he kept on. I re- 

 member him once saying that he had a very good 

 little mare, but she was too quick for him. I 

 rode that mare once or twice and did not find her 

 at all bad to handle. Well, the days of the little 

 mare went by, she was sold or something, and 

 some few years afterwards I happened to meet my 

 friend in the hunting field. Now the horse he was 

 riding was a handful and no mistake. I could see 

 that as we jogged on, after trying the first covert, 

 and I did not expect to see much of my friend 

 after we found. The mare aforesaid was an angel 

 compared with the horse he was riding. We found 

 at last, there was a scent, and I was one of those 

 who got a good start. It was a biggish country 

 we were crossing, gradually getting bigger as we 



