MR. THOMAS HODGSON 189 



This run, it should be said, as well as some other 

 good ones, took place before Webb left Mr. Hodgson. 



Lord Gardner was one of Mr. Hodgson's constant 

 attendants, as he had been of his predecessor's, and was 

 noted for the fineness of his hands, and the boldness 

 of his horsemanship. On Thursday, December 3, 1840, 

 however, when the hounds met at Keythorpe, Lord 

 Gardner sustained a very bad fall at Knowsley Brook, 

 and it might have been attended with very serious con- 

 sequences. He rather liked water, and riding hard up 

 to the brook, at one of the widest parts, his horse slipped 

 back and fell on him. He was carried off in an insensible 

 condition to Mr. Greene's house at Rolleston, but it was 

 not for a day or two that he could be moved to his own 

 residence. 



On another occasion hounds again met at Keythorpe, 

 and after an uninteresting morning with a ring fox found 

 about two o'clock at Shangton Holt. In the course of 

 the run a particularly formidable stake-and-bound hedge 

 came in the way, and the only two to face it were Jem 

 Mason and Dick Webster, the latter of whom may be 

 remembered as often riding horses at the London horse 

 shows. Both landed up to their girths in a bog, but 

 managed to get out, though Jem Mason afterwards came 

 to grief at the Stanton Brook. Not more than half-a- 

 dozen rode at it, but Jem picked out one of the worst 

 places, where the banks were hollow, and being once 

 immersed had to stay there till some men with spades dug 

 an exit for him. It was on this occasion, when, find- 

 ing at Shangton Holt, two foxes going away almost 

 immediately, and the field being anxious to do the 

 same, that Mr. Hodgson, being on the exact spot, just 

 waved his hand, and said, " I beg and pray, gentle- 

 men, you will stand still, or the hounds will never get 

 away." " To keep a field in order like that," said 

 one of those who were out, " was more than the 



