302 ON STEEPLE-CHASING. 



wall, horse and man in a cliaotic heap, 

 unfortunately on the wrong side, and the 

 match was lost. The scene, which a crowd 

 of sporting people turned out to see, was 

 one worthy of Lever. A Pounding match, 

 it should perhaps be explained (for this 

 horribly dangerous form of steeple- chasing 

 is now I suppose extinct, that in which my 

 friend took part being very likely the last), 

 consisted in two competitors riding out into 

 a country, and setting each other alternately 

 the most formidable leaps they could find, 

 until one was " pounded," i.e., could not get 

 out, when the other was declared the 

 winner. Jack Mytton and Dick Christian, 

 by the way, would have made ideal ex- 

 ponents of the game. A clever trick in 

 connection with this form of sport is said 

 to have been practised by a man who 

 taught his horse to jump a roadway, which 

 his opponent naturally crossed at a gallop, 

 thereby not taking a jump which was 



