6 FALLS 



believing it next to an impossibility for any horse 

 to throw me fairly out of the saddle. The only two serious 

 accidents I ever met with in the hunting field, were, one 

 in riding against rising grounds through a doorway out 

 of a farmyard, when, had not the upper lintel given way, 

 my neck must have been broken ; and the other, when 

 my horse, in galloping through an open gateway, brought 

 my knee-cap in contact with the post. On both these 

 occasions I was obliged to roll out of the saddle, and lie 

 down on the ground for some minutes, from the ex- 

 cruciating pain. 



I have had my share of falls with my horse, but seldom 

 without him ; for although riding unmade hunters, my 

 casualties were few and far between, from possessing a 

 quick eye, firm seat, and a powerful arm ; and having 

 ridden with (not against) some of the best fox-hunters of 

 their time — Sir Francis Burdett, Tom Smith, Lord 

 Kintore, Lord Ducie, and others of minor notoriety, I 

 have been often put to the test in keeping my place with 

 the hounds : my lack of accidents, therefore, must be 

 attributed to holding my horse within bounds, and hand- 

 ling him with discretion at his fences, when distressed. 



Although hunting my own hounds for nearly thirty 

 years, I have joined others in the field — the Duke of 

 Beaufort's, Assheton Smith's, the Craven, the Hampshire, 

 when kept by Mr. Villebois, Sir John Cope's, Sir Thomas 

 Mostyn's, in Oxfordshire, the New Forest, the Vale of 

 White Horse, Old Berks, &c., &c., so that I have had some 

 experience in crossing unknown countries, as well as my 

 own. Neither in the kennel was I bigoted to my own 

 sort of hound, having crossed them with the best blood 

 then going : — the Dukes of Beaufort's and Grafton's, Earl 

 FitzwiUiam's, Lord Lonsdale's, Sir T. Mostyn's, Mr. 



