Sir Francis Bond Head, 



o^l 



— for she was mucli out of health — -that would " ebonize " 

 her complexion, ^^ No matter," was the reply, ^' my 

 affection is more than skin-deep ; '^ and so it proved. 



In a work he called '^ The Horse and his Rider/^ Sir 

 Francis aired many of his crotchets on things equine, and 

 on those pertaining to the saddle-room ; and in it gives 

 so lively and interesting a picture of a Meet at 

 Arthingworth, as could scarcely have been excelled by 

 Wliyte Melville himself. 



With the expiration of the lease of his house, this fine 

 old sportsman, though full of vigour, determined that 

 his " hunting lease " should simultaneously come to an 

 end. To the great regret of every member of the 

 Pytchley Hunt, Sir Francis Plead quitted Northampton- 

 shire and went to his old home in Surrey, taking with 

 him the horses, without which life itself would be 

 scarcely worth retaining. The fox now ceased to be an 

 object of pursuit, but the animals that had so often 

 conveyed their master across the green fields of 

 Northamptonshire had now to carry him over the heaths 

 and downs of Surrey, a duty in which there was no 

 excitement. This was their daily duty until age, 

 infirmities, and the doctor's mandate bade all ridinof 

 cease. Forbidden to take horse-exercise, the wrecked 

 old hunter caused a hammock to be rigged up in the 

 boughs of a tree ; and in this, for the sake of air, and of 

 such exercise as it might give him, he was swung for 

 three or four hours daily. Describing this contrivance 

 in a letter to a friend, he says, with a spark of his old 

 accustomed humour, *^ Though I am quite * up a tree ' 

 for my daily ride, I do manage to get one ; and my 

 horse's name is Hammock. It isn't much like the real 



