L ord Alfoi^d's Mastership, 155 



hurdles barred furtlier progress, and no friendly rustic 

 beinpr near to remove one, there was nothing for it but 

 *^to do or die/^ The horse was willing, but the owner 

 weak. The unwonted call upon his energies induced the 

 surprised '^'^quad^'' to rise higher than was anticipated, 

 and the displaced rider found to his mortification that 

 the saddle is not always one of those things which stick 

 closer than a brother. The performance did not escape 

 the kind observations of sundry onlookers, and "laughter 

 rang around.^' It is not probable that the provider of 

 the merriment just recorded ever persuaded himself that 

 he would become a ^^ hard mau ; '"^ nor why should he ? 

 Let every man enjoy himself in the hunting-field or else- 

 where as best suits his own idiosynprasy. To do such 

 violence to his own feelings as to cause his heart to leave 

 its rightful spot and take up a position in the mouth is 

 not required of any man. Upon such as these, however, 

 the honest yeoman — a straight goer in the walks as well 

 as rides of life — looked with pity, not unmingled with a 

 spice of contempt. A true sportsman_, cheery and re- 

 spectful in manner, William West long enjoyed the good- 

 will and esteem of all his neighbours, but a cloud over- 

 shadowed him during the last few years of his life ; but 

 the hunting- da}' s he loved to recall when all things else 

 had well-nigh passed out of recollection. 



A different stamp of horseman was Mr. Sam. Pell, a 

 farmer well known in those days, who standing some- 

 what at the back in the Crick picture, seems to be 

 looking at the rider of an animal which shortly before 

 had occupied a stall in his own stable. The P.H. 

 members of a quarter of a century ago will not soon 

 forget the tell-tale visage — the hat with brims of dean- 



