408 FIELD AND FERN. 



We should have hked to linger on the Border, hut 

 the Waterloo was at hand, and we had a sovereign- 

 even with " Stonehenge" that we would have the 

 patience to ride from Carlisle to Kensington. Taking- 

 Knells, Holme Eden, and Corby Castle on our way, we 

 rattled along in a hard frost up the Vale of the Eden, 

 and over Shap Fells at night, with nothing but the 

 dreary w^histling of the wind through the telegraph 

 wires to bear us company. The lights at Kendal 

 were a pleasant beacon at last ; and Settle, Skipton, 

 and Skibeden was our line of country next morning. 

 Had we read Admiral Fitzroy more closely, we might 

 have avoided that heavy storm which swept down 

 the valley for nearly an hour between Skip ton and 

 Burnley. There was no friendly Horse or Lion,, 

 Red, White, or Blue, which abound in those parts, to 

 receive us ; and there was nothing for it but to fight 

 it out, get on with the mare^s head at an angle of 

 90 degrees when she would go, and get to leeward 

 of a hedge when she wouldn't. 



The Towneley roan and chesnut. Royal Butterfly 

 and Kettledrum were duly visited, and the last we saw 

 of our Scottish friends was at the Waterloo, where 

 " Dalgig" and Mr. A. Graham were very sweet after 

 two courses upon King Death. It was all mud next 

 day beyond Stockport, and hard frost at Buxton, 

 mist and rain at Ashbourne, and snow at Derby. 

 Then we passed through Quorn, and into the heart 

 of Mr. Tailby's country, and bent away through the 

 big Pytchley pastures to Fawsley. Another hard 



