34 OLD FIREBRAND 



so thoroughly knocked up that they were left in the field 

 where we killed our fox, and there bedded up with loads 

 of straw, being incapable of moving farther. This young 

 mare being nearly, if not quite thoroughbred, I rode 

 home that same night to Oxford, a distance of sixteen 

 miles ; but her spirit being stronger than her body, she 

 became alarmingly ill the next day, and did not leave the 

 stable again for several weeks. The next season she 

 proved a capital hunter, and after riding her several 

 years, she was turned out at last for a brood mare. 



The country run over that day I cannot now call to 

 mind, but it was a severe one, and the pace first-rate ; 

 but I well remember following Peyton over a wide and 

 nasty-looking brook (my mare had never seen water 

 before), and from the high bound she made, she came down 

 on her nose the other side, where we had a bit of a 

 scramble together without parting company, and were 

 soon up and away again after old Firebrand, who was 

 leading the pack that day, and being afterwards stifled, 

 i.e. lamed in the stifle joint, I obtained him from Tom 

 Wingfield as a stallion hound. 



