AND A GREAT GALLOP 239 



self, the other has the power of correcting any temporary 

 mistake of his own and turning to advantage any wrong 

 turn on the part of others, with a Hghtning instinct I have 

 never seen equalled. 



It was clear galloping — level-racing conveys the 

 struggle better — across the rain-soaked meadows of the 

 brookside. How the dark thorn fences crackled as the 

 competitors swept over them ! You gave us a treat 

 to-day, Mr. Bromwich. " A treat," he said afterwards ; 

 " it was a treat to see them cross my land like that ! " 

 Thank you, thank you, INIr. Bromwich, say all of us, for 

 your jolly sentiment. And two of those who cracked it 

 quickest also farm land in the neighbourhood, one of 

 them above mentioned. 



Tableau IV. shows the gate opening into the Shuck- 

 burgh and Staverton main road, the same three leaders 

 coming up to it abreast and with much the same following, 

 viz. those with whose names I have already made free. 

 With them were also at least three or four other ladies. 

 Whoever you be who may honour, not the scribbler but 

 his subject, sufBciently to follow me through, do not, I 

 pray you, set any false estimate on our gallops or on the 

 calibre of our country, because some ladies here ride as 

 prominently and helpfully as the men. There are ladies 

 nowadays who can do it, whatever the pace and what- 

 ever the fences, with two stone weight and a safety-skirt 

 in their favour. 



Fifteen minutes to this point (you reached it, some of 

 you, in twelve by another route on the first occasion). 

 By the way, on Saturday we just missed the brook. I 

 could have wished wc hadn't ; for at that pace, and thus 

 settled to work, I cannot believe the essay w^ould have 

 been costly to many of us. And the Braunston Brook 

 is to us in the light of what a Chinaman calls Joss-pigeon — 

 worshipped and attractive ever, if ugly in itself and betimes 

 malignant. 



The blazing scent that had brought hounds thither at 

 steeplechase speed over turf did not fail them on the road. 

 They carried it without a falter down the latter, turning 

 into the fields by the brookside with all the same dash, 



