EARL OF STAMFORD 273 



too heavy, he wisely dropped his prize and continued 

 on his way. The incident was vouched for by several 

 people. 



In the summer of 1862, that is to say, on the 

 Thursday between the Derby and Oaks days, there died 

 a very notable Leicestershire character — none other 

 than Dick Christian, who, in the words of " The Druid," 

 had practically sounded the depth of every ditch and 

 brook in Leicestershire. On Christmas Day i860 he 

 was seized with a fit, with no one near him but his little 

 grandchild, and since that time he had been quite help- 

 less and bedridden, and lay supported by a frame on 

 his bed, with a pulley by which he moved himself. His 

 last three days were attended by intense pain, and he 

 was buried in the little Dissenters' burial-ground nearly 

 opposite his house. What his age was is somewhat 

 uncertain, but at the time of his death he was probably 

 eighty-five. He rode a good many steeplechases, though 

 perhaps he was not at his best in that department. To 

 give Dick Christian his due, he never laid claim to 

 qualities he did not possess. He whipped in to Sir 

 Gilbert Heathcote of the Cottesmore for some time, and 

 occasionally, when Abbey, the huntsman, was unable to 

 go out, he hunted the hounds. He admitted that he 

 could not blow a horn well and had " only a middling 

 voice." In one of his conversations with " The Druid " 1 

 he said : — 



" I once made a bit of a hit when I had hold of the hounds, 

 just over a road. Lord Lonsdale was out. ' Richard,' he says 

 (he always spoke that way), ' Richard, that's as fine a cast as I 

 ever saw made ; you quite deceived me.' We brought the fox 

 from Mankrie Wood close to the Bull at Witham Common, seven 

 or eight miles, slap through Woodwell Head right away to 

 Melton Spinney. My horse was so beat he could just trot — that 

 was all he could do." 



1 "Silk and Scarlet," p. 16. 



