274 THE QUORN HUNT 



Dick Christian's forte was making hunters. From 

 all accounts he was not a first-class steeplechase rider ; 

 but up to a certain point in his life he had a wonderfully 

 good nerve, and he was constantly put on rough horses 

 with orders to turn aside from nothing, and he certainly 

 carried out his directions. He jumped over a whole 

 flock of sheep, and rode the mare Marigold over a most 

 extraordinary drop fence, Marigold l being a mare which 

 had given a succession of breakers no little trouble. 

 He always maintained that he had never ridden a 

 better horse than Corringham ; but no valid reason was 

 ever forthcoming for this preference, seeing that for 

 about twenty years at Melton he rode the best horses 

 that a farmer could breed or a dealer could buy. For 

 about eighteen years he was in the employ of Lord Scar- 

 borough, and he made all his horses ; but from various 

 accounts Dick Christian never rode in either the Rufford 

 or the Grove countries as he rode in Leicestershire. In 

 the Ouorn country he once killed a horse belonging to 

 Mr. Frank Foljambe, an occurrence which long haunted 

 him ; " It was the only horse that ever died in my hands," 

 he used to say. On the opening day of the season 

 1857-58 Dick made his appearance at Kirby Gate, where 

 he held quite a levee. Mr. Leslie, to whom his son was 

 groom, gave him an occasional mount afterwards, but 

 otherwise he was never at the covert-side ; when he did 

 come out he never attempted to ride, so it seems quite a 

 mistake to suppose that he rode boldly up to the last. 

 One of his biographers says that he was extravagant, 

 but a man in his position, with twenty children "all born 

 alive and christened," could not have saved much. His 

 language is said to have been particularly free from any- 

 thing like coarseness, and in his way he was a decided 

 humorist. Before his death, more than one appeal wa9 

 made for funds to enable him to end his days in com- 



1 See p. 190. 



