334 THE BEST OF THE FUN 



by its means I avoid leaving the premises backwards as 

 he rises up a bank ; and by its means alone, when a wilful 

 horse rears, I avert the unsightly alternative of clasping 

 him wath both arms round the neck. Such an accessory 

 to riding may to many people seem altogether superfluous. 

 So it must surely be regarded in later Leicestershire. For 

 the plea that a coarse hunter needs his mane hogged in 

 order to give him the appearance of high breeding can be 

 no more admissible now, than in the days when I best 

 knew the smart horses of Melton. 



On Thursday, March 15 — as my duty, custom, and 

 inclination bound — we attended the Rugby Hunt Chases ; 

 met our hunting-friends and our farmer-friends ; and 

 took our luncheons on a vastly different scale from what 

 is our Spartan method on hunting-days. Say, is not this 

 a refreshing example of sweet ignorance ? Fair novice, 

 attending her first steeplechase, reads notice in small print 

 beside the attractive water-jump, " Please keep well back 

 when the horses are jumping." *' Yes," she commented, 

 " but will the jockeys be able to read, and attend to that, 

 as they jump ? " 



CHAPTER LI 



THAT WICKED BRAUNSTON BROOK AGAIN 



I TAKE up my pen as occasion and opportunity best pre- 

 sent themselves in mid-week, to find myself confronted 

 by Saturday with the Pytchley from Badby Wood, as 

 perhaps the most amusing day of the season, could I 

 but hope so to portray it. Pardon me, readers, you 

 know, well as I do, that such opportunity — such lucid 

 interval, if you like — does not crop up whenever demanded. 

 For instance, I sat me down on Saturday night, took this 

 same pen in hand, to throw it down some five minutes 

 afterwards, and to awake at 2 A.M., chilled to the bone, 

 and with my legs athwart the empty fireplace — from a 

 dream that I was a run fox in a damp drain. Possibly 

 the loss of a stirrup leather and iron, with a subsequent 

 ride on a pulling horse, may have been in some degree 



