188 HUNTING IN MANY COUNTRIES. 



the giving way of a little bank on to which we jumped. The 

 fence was not a big one., but there was a deep ditch below, 

 brimming over with water as a result of the thaw, and the 

 ground beyond was rotten. I fell clear, but the Master's 

 horse slipped back into the ditch, and on getting out stood 

 and kicked. Mr. Morrell got up, when the horse kicked so 

 violently that he got off, and I saw that something was wedged 

 under the saddle behind. The saddle was removed, and quite 

 a large piece of gorse that had been forced under it taken out. 

 Then we went on, half a mile behind hounds ; but the country 

 was open, and we were able to catch them by cutting off a 

 corner. 



Though it hag notliin;? to do with foxhunting, I may per- 

 haps be allowed to refer to another branch of sport, at which 

 I assisted during my sojourn at Malvern, and which was, in 

 its way, quite unique. The sport in question was rat-catch- 

 ing, and some readers will remember that one of Surtees' 

 best characters, Lord Scamperdale, was first entered to rat- 

 catching with ferrets, as a prelude to his foxhunting educa- 

 tion. In another place the same author writes of a hunts- 

 man having " a deal of rat-catching cunning," and as far 

 as my experience goes the best amateur rat-catchers I ever met 

 were foxhunters, and tiie cleverest of these a professional 

 huntsman. It is the case that rats invariably haunt a fox- 

 hound kennel, being tempted by the flesh, and it results that 

 hunt servants have the chance of plenty of this kind of sport. 

 There was no huntsman concerned in the experience I am 

 going to relate, but a most enthusiastic foxhunter, not much 

 older than I was, but of very ripe experience in various forms 

 of sport. In going to hunt or in coming home my friend had 

 noticed a certain very desolate rickyard, and at the first 

 opportunity we made an inspection of the place. The locality 

 I need not specify exactly, but the farm was at no great dis- 

 tance from the river Severn, and the landlord, who lived else- 

 where, was an eccentric, who, for some reason I never heard, 

 had not had the stacks in this particular yard threshed for 

 some years. The place was, as far as my recollection goes, 

 quite away from any farm-house and village; if there were 

 buildings near the rickyard there was no one living in them; 

 but several acres were covered with stacks, all in a state of 



