COLONEL WYNDHAM. 157 



of Waterloo. AYyndbam was a very powerful man, and 

 could, even in those days, get no change out of sixteen 

 stone, but no fence ever stopped him. When he could not 

 get ove7', he got through ; where a bullfinch * seemed impe- 

 netrable, the horsemen would cry out, " Where's Wynd- 

 ham % " and he soon made a gap bi'g enough for almost a 

 whole regiment to pass. Nor was it less extraordinary 

 how, with the Leicestershire pace, and with his heavy 

 weight, he got to his fox. On one occasion, when Tom 

 Smith thought he had it all his own way, and the hounds 

 were running into their fox, Mr, Smith turned round to see 

 how far he was ahead of the field, and to his surprise saw 



Wyndham close at his heels. " How the d 1 did you 



get here % " exclaimed the squire, who had some diflSculty 

 in retaining the lead. That lead his fellow-sportsmen occa- 

 sionally endeavoured to snatch from him, but very seldom 

 with success. Sir F. Goodricke, then Frank Holyoake, a 

 very dashing rider, and others, rode against him in a memo- 

 rable run, but Smith went clean away from them all, and 

 Baronet, Sir James Musgrave's horse, on which Holyoake 

 was mounted, was killed in the attempt. A steak from 

 this renowned horse was afterwards served up at Melton, 

 and after William Cooke had partaken of it, his friends 

 jokingly asked him if he knew what he had eaten. When 

 informed it was a slice of his old friend Baronet, instead of 

 being disgusted, as they expected, he immediately replied, 

 " Give me another cut oflf the same steak." Once, after a 

 severe run in Leicestershire, when the fox was sinking, and 

 Mr. Smith found his horse in a like plight, '' Oh, if I had 



* An ox-fence consists of a wide ditch, a blackthcin hedge, and a 

 flight of rails. A thorn-fence is one composed of a ditch and a thick, 

 busliy, or blackbird hedge, leaning over to the grass ; it is called a Bull- 

 finch, or Bullfincher, " Doubles " are the most difficult and dangerous 

 jumps of all. Here there is a ditch and rail, then another ditch and 

 another rail. Dick Christian calls the " bullfinch" a " regular stitcher." 

 They are thickest between Ashby Pastures and Barkby Holt. 



