Breeding of Hunters, 257 



viewed the fox as he skirted the village, and his 

 " Yoick Ranter, boy /" as his favourite hound hit it off 

 up the hedge-side, still seems to sound in the ears of 

 the few who were up and heard it. It was the last 

 cheer he ever gave to hound, and it seemed strange 

 that the sad honour should fall on one of the blood 

 which has been the special pride and stay of the 

 Brocklesby pack. Over a small hedge, and into a plot 

 of garden ground he went ; but the leap out of it, a 

 rotten hedge with a ditch on the near side of it, was 

 to be his last. Will scarcely knew it w^as there, as he 

 kept his eye on the hounds who flew to Ranter in the 

 corner of the next field ; his horse caught its leg in a 

 binder, and was drawn back so suddenly in its drop, 

 that he fell over on his head. He turned a complete 

 somersault, and lay on his back with his arms and 

 legs extended and powerless ; and when he was picked 

 up, perfectly black in the face, it was found that dis- 

 location of the vertebrae had brought on paralysis in 

 every limb. For nearly five days he lived a complete 

 death in life, with his mind and his voice as clear 

 as ever, and waiting calmly for his end. His fall 

 occurred just beneath the shade of Barnoldby 

 Church, in a field belonging to Mr. Nainby, at 

 whose house he died ; and we believe that a small 

 granite obelisk, planted round wdth evergreens has 

 been erected to mark the spot. The lapse of 

 years has not quenched the fondness with which 

 every Brocklesby man still clings to his me- 

 mory. Three more keen and steady sportsmen 

 than " Old Will," Charles Uppleby, of Barrow, and 

 Philip Skipworth, of Aylesby, never went to their 

 rest. 



A Devi-sing mare, whose Eclipse sire was imported 

 into Lincolnshire from the royal stud by the late Lord 

 Yarborough, had also the honour of throwing to Pil- 

 grim that mare of Mr. Frank Iles's which won the first 

 steeple-chase (April, 1820) ever run in Lincolnshire. 



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