jack-o'-lantern and screwdriver. 47 



and ride away fast from the fence.' This was accordingly 

 done, when the squire rode at the rails, which Jack taking 

 with his breast, gave both himself and his rider such a fall, 

 that their respective heads were looking towards the fence 

 they had ridden at. Up rose both at the same time, as if 

 nothing very particular had happened. ' Now,' said Tom 

 Smith, 'this will be the making of the horse ; just do as 

 you did before, and ride away.' Edge did so, and Jack 

 flew the rails without touching, and was a first-rate timber 

 fencer from that day. What made this feat the more 

 remai'kable was, that it did not come off in a run, but in 

 what is called ' cold blood.' " 



Jack-o'-Lantern was a particularly gentle and good- 

 tempered horse. When Mr. Lindow had broken his collar- 

 bone, and was quite unable to hold the Clipper even with 

 " the clipper-bit," Mr. Smith changed horses with him for 

 the day. The meet was at Scoling's Gorse, near Melton, 

 which has long since fallen under the plough. Mr. Lindow 

 rode Jack with one arm in a sling, and the Clipper wai 

 brought out with bit-checks, some eight inches long, and 

 the huge attendant curb chain. Every one thought 

 Mr. Smith bewitched, because he would not mount until 

 the curb chain was taken off, and after pledging themselves 

 that he would never be able to pull him up till he reached 

 the sea coast, they heard early in the afternoon, that 

 "Mr. Smith had run away with the Clipper, and that he 

 could never go fast enough for him any one part of the 

 way." * 



Screwdriver, who has been already mentioned, once 

 fairly dislodged the squire into the middle of a gorse cover. 

 He was finding his fox in some very high gorse, near 

 Conholt Park, and was sitting loosely on Screwdriver — 

 irho, by the way, even after Mr. Smith took to him, always 

 retained his untamable temper — when the wilful animal 



* " Silk and Scarlet," j). 2i)5 



