Breeding of Hun ters. 313 



horses behind him. It would have been enough for 

 his fame to have been the sire of Joe Maiden's cele- 

 brated Pevorett, a fine sixteen-hand bay with a short 

 back and fore-ends, always "blowing his nose," as 

 high-couraged horses invariably do, and obliged to be 

 muzzled even after a hard Cheshire day, for fear he 

 should eat his litter. He was bred by Mr. James 

 Pevor, steward to Mr. Wilbraham, of Delamere Forest, 

 and was purchased by Joe Maiden for the hunt at 35/, 

 His price had been 80/,, but as he was always a clumsy 

 roadster, he fell and broke his knees on the road to 

 Nantwich fair. A few days after his disaster, he 

 jumped out of his paddock when he heard the hounds 

 cub-hunting in Delamere Forest, and ran loose by 

 Joe's side all day, as if inviting a closer acquaintance. 

 This was a Saturday, and he was caught amid the 

 scenes of his future labours on Monday, at Whetnall 

 Wood, and soon found his way to the Cheshire Hunt 

 stables. He never gave Joe a fall during the eight 

 seasons he rode him ; and besides his endless bottom, 

 he always seemed able to make a second effort, an 

 invaluable knack in a horse who had to carry a 

 huntsman over the Vale of Chester, where the 

 doubles nearly all measure nine yards. It used to 

 be a saying in the Hunt, as the hounds trotted up, 

 "Ay! look out! here's Maiden on Pevorett!" and 

 there they were certain to be together, year after 

 year, at the Stamford Bridge fixture, which always 

 stood for the day after the Liverpool steeple-chase. 

 The late Lord Delamere thought so highly of the paii 

 that he offered to run them for a thousand guineas 

 a side against any man and horse in England four miles 

 over Cheshire. Still there were men in the Hunt 

 who could go with them, and Joe was fairly collared 

 one day by Mr. Wilbraham Tollemache (who always 

 loved rushing, pulling horses), just at the finish of a 

 very capital run from Combermere Abbey to near 

 Whitchurch. He had slipped all the rest of the field. 



