3 2 In Scarlet and Silk 



Few men have taken more falls, and got 

 off more cheaply from them, than the hard 

 squire. " There's no place you can't get over 

 with a fall," he used to say, and he never let 

 go of the reins when he was down ; a most 

 excellent plan, but attended with a certain 

 amount of risk. In trying to follow this 

 great horseman's advice, I nearly lost my 

 left eye some years ago, as the hand that 

 should have been guarding my face was 

 employed in holding my reins ; the con- 

 sequence being that the four-year-old on top 

 of me struck out, and cut my cheek down 

 to the bone, exposing the eye in a most 

 unpleasant manner. 



There are few more striking figures in the 

 hunting-field of to-day than that of Charles 

 Shepherd, huntsman to Lord Leconfield, in 

 the Sussex country. At the age of seventy- 

 six, and probably senior by several years to 

 any other of his craft in England, he still 

 goes right well across a country, and is 

 always with his hounds. He began hunting 

 at the age of thirteen with Mr. Hall, of 



