MR. smith's rOSDYKE LEAP. 31 



Leicestershire were — one of forty-seven minutes, from 

 Coplow to Hallaton, and the other one hour and twenty- 

 seven minutes, from Cream Gorse to Stockerston, the fox 

 being killed on both occasions. 



His fame and success in Lincolnshire were in no wise 

 inferior to what had attended him at Quorn. Many of the 

 Melton men followed him, knowing that he was sure of 

 good sport wherever he went ; but scarcely one of them 

 was prepared for the formidable drains of dykes in the 

 Burton Hunt, and their horses were unfit for the country. 

 Shortly after their arrival there, they found a fox near the 

 kennels, and he crossed a dyke called the Tilla. Tom 

 Smith rode at it, and got in, but over, and was the only one 

 who did. Fourteen of the Meltonians were floundering in 

 the water at the same time, which so cooled their ardour, 

 that they soon returned to Melton, dropping off one or two 

 at a time, always excepting Sir H. Goodricke, Captain 

 Baird — one of the best riders of his day, — and one or 

 two others. Mr. Smith once took a most extraor- 

 dinary leap in Lincolnshire. The hounds came to a cut 

 or navigable canal, called the Fosdyke, over which 

 were two bridges, one a bridle bridge, the other used for 

 carts,* running parallel to each other at a considerable dis- 

 tance apart. At one end of these bridges there is usually a 

 high gate leading into the field adjoining the canal, and 

 along each side of them is a low rail, to protect persona 

 going over. Smith rode along one of these bridges, and 

 found the gate at the end locked, whereupon seeing the 

 gate open at the end of the parallel bridge, he immediately 

 put his horse at the rails, and jumped across and over the 

 opposite rails, on to the other bridge, to the surprise and 

 gratification of all who witnessed the feat. 



Sir William Miles, the present respected member for West 



* They cross the canal into the lands of different land-owners, which 

 accounts for their being so near each other. 



