Devonshire 105 



astonished a horse schooled over nothing but flying fences ; 

 and an up-country jockey would have been puzzled to 

 make his way over it, without some previous local practice. 

 One principle seemed to have been followed by the 

 management when laying out the course, which was never 

 to let two fences succeed each other in a straight line, 

 but always at once to make a turning to the right or the 

 left, as soon as a fence had been jumped. In fact the 

 letter Z gives a fair idea of the plan on which they had 

 proceeded. Added to this inconvenient idea, there was 

 a road to jump into, from the top of a bank 7 ft. 6 in. 

 high, and the bank out of it, though a comparatively low 

 one, was only distant about the width of a cart. At one 

 meeting there, one of my brother officers, Mr. E. W. Dunn, 

 a remarkably fine rider, was piloting "Top Sawyer," by the 

 " Flying Dutchman," when the latter took it into his head 

 to refuse, while at the same time one of the stirrup- 

 leathers unfortunately broke. Slipping his left arm 

 through the stirrup, so as not to lose it altogether, as he 

 had weighed out rather fine, Mr. Dunn resolutely battled 

 with the horse, who was showing temper, and rearing 

 badly in the vain attempt to get rid of his rider. I had 

 been riding in a previous race, and was going to ride again 

 subsequently, so I still had on my boots and breeches, 

 and, borrowing a hunting whip from a bystander, I ran 

 down just as I was to try and assist in conquering the 

 wilful brute. Many others had also assembled to watch 

 the fight, and when I arrived there, a farmer on a tiny 

 Exmoor pony jumped off it, and saying to me, " Here sir, 

 give him a lead over," gave me a " leg up " on the mite 

 he had been riding. The animal was so small that my 

 feet nearly touched the ground on each side, and the 



