AND AMERICAN RURAL SPORTS. 



263 



after-life were equally unfortunate, since he lost an opportu- 

 nity of getting a rich wife, because, although he made three 

 several attempts on as many days, he could never manage 

 to set to church within canonical hours. 



o 



Luckily, however, for Richard, as he was the last of his 

 family in coming into the world, he contrived to be the last 

 ^ to go out of it, and consequently succeeded to the property 

 of those of his brothers and sisters who had not resorted to 

 matrimony as a mode of relieving the monotony of life; and 

 thus it happened, that, while he was deliberating upon 

 which of the professions he should adorn, he was saved the 

 trouble of farther debate by being placed in easy circum- 

 stances for life. Never was any man more rejoiced at being 

 left to follow the bent of his own inclination; which, how- 

 ever, he did as he performed every thing else, quite at his 

 leisure. He was fond of hunting, and subscribed to a pack 

 of excellent fox-hounds, but he could never contrive to be 

 at the place of meeting in time to see them throw off; so 

 that, after an hour's hard riding, he usually met them on 

 their return to kennel. 



In a moment of extraordinary excitement, Richard was 

 induced to ride a steeple chase — not for the sake of the 

 wager, for he would not have ridden a third of the distance 

 for thrice the money, but simply for the gratification of the 

 whim of the moment. The idea of Dick's riding a race of 

 any kind was so utterly preposterous that it attracted the 

 attention of the whole country, and innumerable were the 

 bets to which it gave rise; since, although there were many 

 who were ready to lay upon the acknowledged excellence of 

 Richard's horse, there were quite as many who would have 

 staked their fortunes upon the dilatoriness of the rider; and 

 among the latter were his two opponents, who it was sus- 

 pected had engaged to share the profit or loss of the adven- 

 ture.. They had cunningly covenanted that they should start 

 at a particular hour, and that they should not wait for each 

 other's arrival. The event justified their prudence in 

 making this proviso, for Richard appeared at the starting- 

 post just two minutes after his antagonists had quitted it, 

 pufiing away, not from want of breath, but by reason of a 

 cigar. "Good morning to you, Gentlemen," said Richard 

 to a host of persons who had gathered about the spot, as he 

 quietly dismounted and began to tighten his saddle-girths, 

 while his horse, deeming them tight enough before, showed 

 its sense of Dick's ofBciousness by a smart bite, which, if it 

 had included cuticle as well as broadcloth, might have ma- 

 terially interfered with the comfort of his ride. 



"Make haste, my good fellow, or you'll lose the race," 

 exclaimed a by-stander, who, having staked a round sum 

 upon Richard's horse, was almost frantic at beholding the 

 owner's imperturbable deliberation. 



"Wait while I light another cigar," responded Dick, igni- 

 ting apiece of German tinder, which he began to blow with 

 great energy, and looking upon the anxious faces around 

 him with the greatest complacency imaginable. When, 

 however, he got into the saddle, he appeared determined on 

 making up for lost time, and set off in good earnest. He 

 was an excellent horseman, and a bold one; but two minutes 

 in a race, like an inch in a man's nose, are no trifle. His 

 horse, though, was a regular fencer; and, in the course of 

 the next five minutes, cleared three quickset hedges, a 

 market woman, and a gipsy's donkey, and Dick was evi- 

 dently gaining ground upon his precursors. But he was 

 destined never to be before-hand in anything. There stood 

 the steeple, within half-a-mile of him, and, midway be- 

 tween, a rising ground which his rivals were just mounting, 

 and soon disappeared behind it. Dick put spurs to his horse, 

 and arrived on the summit of the hillock just in time to 

 catch a glimpse of the foremost equestrian, who was show- 

 ing him a "clean pair of heels," the only visible part of 

 him; and they, as in duty bound, were following his head 

 and shoulders to the bottom of a deep and rapid river, of 

 which the party in advance either were previously ignorant, 

 or, like others who have taken the shadow for the substance, 

 were mis-led by the reflection of the desired steeple in the 

 water, and determined to arrive at the gaol per saltum. 

 While Richard, who was somewhat slow in comprehending 

 matters, was wondering at the extraordinary feat, his eye 

 glanced towards his other antagonist, who was practically 

 explaining to him the mode in which it had been accom- 

 plished, by sliding over the nose of his horse in the same 

 antipodean fashion. Dick, however, who had already suf- 

 fered from his proximity to his horse's nose, pursued an 

 opposite course, and pulling the animal up — that is, perpen- 

 dicularly upon his hind legs — he slid over its tail, after his 

 old habits of being always behind, and thus regained terra 

 Jirma. 



Richard, who was a good-natured fellow, and had no no- 

 tion of his opponents stopping short in the church-yard on 

 their way to the steeple, hastily tied his horse to a tree, and 

 proceeded to angle for them with the thong of his hunting- 

 whip: but not succeeding in getting a bite, he tried the hook 

 at the butt-end, and, at length fished them both out. Their 

 horses had taken care of themselves, and were quietly 

 grazing in a meadow on the opposite bank. Dick, like a 

 good fellow as he was, stuck both his friends upon the back 

 of his own nag, and led them to the nearest inn, where he 

 left them with thirteen blankets on the outside of their 

 bodies, and two stiff glasses of brandy and water within. 

 Our hero, having previously fortified himself with a beef- 

 steak and a tankard of home-brewed, walked over the rest 



