SILK AND SCARLET, 



CHAPTER I. 



DICK CHRISTIAN AGAIN. 



" A gentleman who practically explains all the above accomplishments, 

 to the great edification of young horses, and the no less astonish- 

 ment of weak minds. " 



DICK CHRISTIAN had practically sounded the 

 depth of every ditch and brook in Leicestershire, 

 for more than half a century ; but its foxhunters had 

 never half sounded him in return. They little knew 

 what a capacity for authorship, which was not destined 

 to blossom until its seventy-eighth spring, lurked in 

 that thickset frame and merry twinkling eye ; and 

 until, when a graver task was ended, I sought him 

 out at Melton last summer, and discussed the chances 

 of a second Lecture with him, I was nearly as much 

 in the dark myself Seated beneath the chestnut 

 shade of " Norton, by Beningboro','' I found him as 

 remarkable in his language as he had been when I 

 gave him his first trial eighteen months before, and 

 firmer than ever in his hero-worship of Mr. Assheton 

 Smith, Sir James Musgrave, and Captain White. It 

 was not for any lack of epistolary stimulants on his 

 part, that I delayed my visit so long. He fairly 

 thirsted to be in print once more ; and the post had 

 brought me an admonition to this effect, " You don't 



B 



