PREDECESSORS 241 



gout, and he told me he had come out against his doctor's 

 orders. He had on thick white duffel breeches, and the boots 

 known, I think, as Napoleons, like those in which Mr. Her- 

 ring's first-flight gentry lead the way. He and I had managed, 

 with several others, to get thrown out, and we found ourselves 

 with no visible means of getting to hounds, which were drag- 

 ging along on a cold line two or three fields away. There 

 was neither gate nor gap to help us, and a really high stake- 

 and-bound fence of the type which John Leech drew so well, 

 between us. A March day was just treating us to an interval 

 of hail. I was riding a most ungenerous horse who made no 

 allowance for one's mistakes, and took a serious view of 

 jumping without hounds. ' I am afraid,' said Lord Granville 

 with a pale smile, ' we shall have to go ; will you try or shall 

 I ? ' I felt that for once I should not be justified in following 

 ni}^ leader. So I crammed Marsala at it, with a show of 

 decision which did not take him in for a moment. Bound he 

 came, and our small party exchanged glances of discourage- 

 ment. Lord Granville was riding an uncoupled rather 

 Cleveland-bay-looking horse. He turned him suavely round 

 at it, and over he went, and piloted his convoy to the haven 

 where we would be ; Marsala, who luckily did not like being 

 left alone, at last climbing over somehow. 



Eminent horse-dealers, like great painters, have their 

 styles and manners, and Lord Granville knew and appreciated 

 them all. I recollect his filling in with a few telhng 

 touches the portrait of the moralist who robs you of your 

 wits by the integrity of his eye, and the almost sacred 

 conviction of his utterances ; the oracle who inspires you by 

 the little he says and the much this little leads you to infer ; 

 the sophist who can turn an animal's defects to advantage. 

 How he delighted too in those crude or delicate compliments 

 — served to taste— to one's riding and judgment, which lead 

 to so many deals. 



R 



