i884. 37 



his face for the unknown regions of Sedgemoor. 

 At this spot Orbell had a fall, breaking his 

 stirmp leather and losing his horse, so he was 

 out of it. The Master and Tom, however, were 

 equal to the occasion, and we presently noticed 

 that we were joined b}^ a stranger on a dark 

 grey horse, and he especially caught our atten- 

 tion by going head over heels at a fence, the 

 Master saying to the First Whip, "Tom, what- 

 ever happens, we must not lose that man" — so 

 Tom caught his horse and started him again, and 

 invaluable he proved from his acquaintance with 

 the Moors. We were now launched into the 

 country^ of rhines — enormous ditches that drain 

 the Moor, wide as brooks, and deep as despair; 

 but though it was somewhat hard on horses to 

 meet with half-a-dozen of these at the end of 

 four hours, no accidents occurred, in spite of 

 the Master having a very narrow escape from 

 a man crossing him at the edge of one, and 

 the big brown only just reached the opposite 

 shore. Some of these widened into unjump- 

 able canals, and here our friend-on-the-grey's 

 knowledge of the bridges was most useful. We 



