THE SQUIRE OF ASWARBY 



was written by him (though we made a few alterations to 

 disguise the authorship), and the twenty-fifth of the month 

 never came round without the welcome report on two fool- 

 scap sheets. They were always expressed in a kind of vivid 

 style of his own. 



"... His fall from a horse he was riding on trial 

 that day near the Reeded House was a very severe one, 

 and Cooper saw him on the ground for at least a minute 

 by the side of his horse, and was going to help him when 

 he got up. He had a habit of carrying his horn in his 

 breast to get easier at it, and whether he injured himself 

 or not by falling on it could never be ascertained. They 

 took it to his bedside some days before he died, and he 

 showed them exactly how he fell, and half sitting up in bed 

 took it with all the animation of health, as if it revived him 

 to lay hold of it again. The fall must have pained him, as 

 when his wife heard him sound his horn for the last time 

 on coming back to the kennels, and went out to greet him 

 with, ' Thank God, Will, I have you safe from another 

 season,' he replied, ' Yes, but mind you I've had a rum un 

 to-day,' and so it is feared he had. The cold seemed to 

 increase upon him when hunting was over, and his throat as 

 usual was rather relaxed, but he thought little of it, and 

 striking his chest as was his wont, he used to assure his wife 

 he was all right there. Still with all his wife's tenderness for 

 such a husband, it could not escape her that he was slightly 

 failing. It gave her no delight to hear when he came back 

 from the Castle (for he would perpetually slip up there to 

 weigh when no one saw him) that he was 2 lb. lighter, 

 and that he had lost 7 lb. that season, which would leave 

 him about 12 stone 5 lb. or so. On horseback, and especi- 

 ally on so small a horse as the Emperor, he looked a large 

 man, and his weight, contrary to what we generally see 

 with all splendid horsemen, lay in his legs. The draft had 

 been sent off to Lord Ducie's, and he had intended to set 

 off and see his old friend John Walker and attend the 

 Wynnstay sale, and come round by Joe Maiden's, the very 

 Friday before he died. His cold increased and it was diffi- 



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