1 82 STAG-HUNTING RECOLLECTIONS 



and everywhere. All who have hunted in a bank and ditch 

 country have met the victim of an uncomfortable conviction 

 that the animal he happens to be riding is out of his proper 

 country ; that he exults in big flying fences, and disdains to 

 lay a foot to a bank. Nine times out of ten, however, you 

 would find the same individual — say if you met him in 

 Mr. Fernie's country — paralysed by the self-same animal's 

 supposed preference for banks and doubles. Here and there, 

 perhaps, a Leicestershire horse is not at his best in a bank 

 country. Eadical, for instance, ridden by anybody but Mr. 

 Smith, might not have done himself justice in the Bracknell 

 country ; and it is undeniable that many good horses are not 

 quite Leicestershire horses. But for my own riding any- 

 where I like a horse which has been obliged to jump high, 

 and wide, and strong ; and in the whole of my hunting 

 experience I only remember owning one horse which could 

 not be trusted to kick back at a bank. 



One of the finest exhibitions of hunting riding I ever saw 

 was in the Cattistock country some years ago. The late Lord 

 Guilford was at that time hunting the country. We found a 

 fox in Briarswood, and ran for twenty minutes very fast over 

 the best of the country. All banks and doubles. Lord Guilford 

 was riding a horse which had only arrived the night before, 

 and had been sold out of Leicestershire because he took off 

 too soon from courage and over- jumped the fences and him- 

 self. A horseman such as Lord Guilford was — I put him in 

 the first half-dozen of my acquaintance — can to some extent 

 govern accidents ; but I cite this as an illustration of the 

 steadying effects big banks have upon the most extravagant 

 high-flyers. 



There is a picture, by Byron Webb, of Mr. Tattersall on 

 a thoroughbred mare named Black Bess, with the Queen's 

 Hounds in an alluring middle distance, in the little room 

 facing the office at Albert Gate, which he has given me leave 



