THE HARD GENTLEMAN. 57 



his horse mto the next field, when away they went 

 again as if nothing had happened. 



His fearless riding, and wonderful escapes from 

 severe falls, without broken bones or any apparent 

 injury, obtained for him, amongst the lower orders 

 in his Hampshire country, the well-earned and 

 justly-applied appellation of " The Hard Gentle- 

 man." 



I have ridden with him through many a hard 

 run, both with his own pack, and in other coun- 

 tries, and upon one occasion, when the hounds had 

 slipped away from him at starting, with a burning 

 scent, and he had to make up lee-way across a very 

 stiffly enclosed vale, with very heavy fences, I saw 

 him encounter three such falls in succession, wdthin 

 twenty minutes — his horse being completely blown 

 by the railway pace he had been coming — as would 

 have placed most men hors de combat for the re- 

 mainder of the day. Hurt he was certainly, and 

 most fearfully by the last, over a high five-barred 

 gate into a turnpike-road; but his indomitable 

 spirit carried him through to the end of the run 

 and the death of the fox. 



On another day Mr. Smith and myself were 

 riding together side by side, in a sharp burst of 

 thirty minutes, with my own hounds, when a thick 

 plantation of young fir trees, about twelve feet 



