226 THE QUORN HUNT 



"Yes, Sir Richard," answered Morgan, running his horse 

 without a moment's hesitation at a flight of double posts and 

 rails, with a ditch in the middle and one on each side ! The good 

 grey having gone in front from the find was perhaps a little 

 blown, and dropping his hind legs in the farthest ditch rolled 

 very handsomely into the next field. 



" It's not your fault, old man ! " said Ben, patting his favourite 

 on the neck as they rose together in mutual goodwill, adding 

 in the same breath, while he leapt to the saddle, and Tranby 

 acknowledged the line — 



" Forrard on, Sir Richard ! — Hoic, together. Hoic. He's a 

 Quorn fox and he'll do you good." 



I had always considered Ben Morgan an unusually fine rider. 

 For the first time I began to understand why his horse never 

 failed to carry him so willingly and so well. 



Subsequently Ben Morgan became huntsman to 

 the then Lord Middleton, and showed excellent sport. 

 He hunted Lord Middleton's hounds until 1869, when, 

 on being succeeded by George Orvis, he went to the 

 Essex and Suffolk under Mr. Carrington Nunn. ' 



Ben Moreen died in 1880 at the house of his brother 

 Goddard, who at one time hunted the Old Berkeley. 



Whyte-Melville, in a passage following that quoted 

 above, makes reference to Dick Webster, a very famous 

 horseman, well known in the Quorn country. Speaking 

 of the run in which Ben Morgan's horse fell with him at 

 the double posts and rails, the famous novelist writes : — 



I do not remember whether Dick Webster was out with us 

 that day, but I am sure that if he was he has not forgotten it, 

 and I mention him as another example of daring horsemanship, 

 combined with an imperturbable good-humour, almost verging on 

 buffoonery, which seems to accept the most dangerous falls as 

 enhancing the fun afforded to a delightful game at romps. 



1 Ben Morgan was one of the four sons of old Jem Morgan, who for a 

 long time hunted Mr. Conyer's hounds in Essex. Jem Morgan was the son 

 of a Suffolk yeoman, a circumstance which may suffice to explain why the 

 family gravitated towards the east country. 



