The

Mr.

ring at the Agricultural Hall, on Monday afternoon, and died on Wednesday night. Mr. Barker's son said that his father was riding Forester, the property of Mr. Skinner, to show it for sale. witness did not know whether the horse was vicious or not. Thomas Mashiter, of Priest's Estate, Romford, said he saw Mr. Barker in the ring on the Monday. The horse kicked out two or three times violently, but he got him to settle down. He walked him round to where the exit door was. The horse wanted to get out of the ring, but deceased would not let him. The horse then reared, fell over backwards, and lay on deceased, completely covering him. If deceased had not been so good a rider he would have fallen off when the horse reared, and would not have been hurt; but as the horse reared he bent with the horse, and kept on his back, so that he was carried over with him. A verdict of accidental death was returned.

A BAD BUSINESS.

ENGRAVED BY E, HACKER, FROM A PAINTING BY H. L. ROlfe.

"So ho! friend Joshua, thou art early to the road this morning. Has the spirit moved thee and thy righteous brethren to act with true honesty, and pull down yonder tide nets that keep the fish from coming up the river?"

"Surely, friend, not so," answered Joshua firmly, but good humouredly at the same time; "thou canst not expect that our own hands should pull down what our purses established. Thou killest the fish with spear, line, and coble net; and we with snarca and with nets which work by the ebb and the flow of the tide. Each doth what seems to do best in his eyes to secure a share of the blessings which Providence hath bestowed on the river, and that within his own bounds. I prithee seek no quarrel against us, for thou shalt have no wrong at our hand."

"Be assured I will take none at the hand of any man, whether his hat be cocked or broad-brimmed," answered the fisherman. “I tell you in fair terms, Joshua Geddes, that you and your partners are using unlawful craft to destroy the fish in the Solway by stake nets and weirs; and that we, who fish fairly, and like men as our fathers did, have daily and yearly less sport and less profit."

Ominous words these; but they have come to have a very different bearing since the time when Red Gauntlet thus pointed the argument. The spear is now held to be amongst the very worst of weapons by those who "fish fairly," and were another Sir Walter to paint us another fisherman's riot he would arrange for an attack on the poaching crew who work silently a-nights with torch and spear.

I am partial to a nap before dinner: never more so than when fortified with a judicious sherry and bitters, and when the mess readingroom is quiet and empty, the billiard-room desolation, chances of an ante-prandial rubber reduced to nil.

I don't think I'm particularly bad-tempered, at the same time, when once boredom has been lulled in the arms of Morpheus, it is, to say the least, annoying to be brusquely and recklessly awakened from one's Elysium simply to gratify the idleness, noisy curiosity, and gossiping propensities of some loafing subaltern, who has exhausted his own stock of amusement for the day, and seeks a resource to divert himself at my expense. I call it selfish. Perhaps I was the least trifle crusty when, in reply to young Vainables, our latest joined cornet, who tramped in like a cart-horse, booted, spurred, pink-coated and mud-stained, and enforced his query of "Well, doctor; old man, what have you got to say for yourself?" with a foolishly facetious dig in the ribs, from the butt-end of a thumb that could have had no joint of the os phalangis in its composition, to judge from its rigidity. I retorted,

That I wished he would keep his hoofs to himself; that it was most improper that half-broken horses should be suffered to come larking up-stairs into the officers' quarters."

66 Quite right, old boy: make a mem. of that to the chief, and also that no pigs are to be allowed to snore in the reading-room, either before or after dinner;" and he repeated the prodding process with the other thumb, even more adamantine than its predecessor.

I was on the point of making an angry remark, when our company was augmented by Vass our Major, Robinson our adjutant, and a ranker, not half a bad sort of fellow for all that, Cresswell, another cornet, and Rasper the senior lieutenant for purchase; the two latter in uniform, just returned from stable duty,

"What sort of a gallop, Vainables?" asked Cresswell, as he entered.

"No account, as usual. It's simply heartbreaking; nine days out this month, two blanks, and the best run a ring of two miles after a three-legged vixen. I shall chuck it up, and realise the horses before the season is too far spent. It's simple waste of time and money to keep'em in the stable, They're a useful lot, doctor: I'll let you have your pick of the bushel, and cheap."

Thank you," I grunted: "it's all very well for a spindle-shanked whipping-post, like you, to get outside a lot of straight-shouldered, spavined brutes; but I have too much respect for my person; and, much as I respect piety in general, I have an objection to beasts saying their prayers while they are underneath me. I'll allow you thirty shillings for the hide of the iron-grey as a door-mat, or, if you fatten them a bit, I'll see about making you a low bid for a subject for vivisection."

Further sleep was out of the question after the influx of arrivals; but I had the satisfaction of creating a laugh at Vainable's expense from the extreme liberality of my offers.

"Where's Hanwell?-thought he went out, too. Did he come back with you?" asked the Major.

"Come back! yes, moister than he bargained for. I suppose he's changing now. We had a bit of a lark, the only one this month." "Then you had something of a run after all?"

"Nothing but what we made for ourselves; the Lunatic and I came back across country for a lark. It's as pretty a line as you could want anywhere for a steeple-chase or anything. Those flats and dairy meadows just outside the town, the first two or three miles or so; all pasture, dead level, biggish fencing, and decent looking dykes here and there, I can tell you.'

"Hounds never draw there, do they?"

"Not a cover of any sort, simply dairy pastures; and in another ten years I dare say half of them will be cut up on building leases, as the place spreads with the march of intellect. As for a fox running over this, a fox only runs where he can find shelter; so he ain't likely to make a dead point for a manufacturing town, simply for the sake of giving the field behind him a gallop over two or three miles of the prettiest turf in England."

"But what about Hanwell?" asked the Major?

"The Lunatic! O he came along those meadows on our way home. I gave him a lead over a fairish dyke, banks were rotten, had a bit of a scramble and a flourish for it myself. Lunatic comes whack at it, looking well in front of him, his old mare doesn't half like it, shuts up like a telescope as she comes near, going too fast to stop, obliged to jump, lands short, drops her hind legs in, got her chest and forelegs on the bank, hadn't the pluck of a louse, won't try to save herself, rolls back, and subsides on her tail, with her old snout only visible out of three feet of water, and a couple more of mud."

"Lunatic underneath her?" asked Cresswell, with nonchalance, as he lit a weed.

"No, slipped his feet from the irons, and wriggled clear, came out rather moist and hung on to the bridle; the old gal looked at him, seemed quite comfortable, and wouldn't stir. Lunatic tries to warm her up with his whip, but she's all under water but her head; and if he catches her on the nose, she may duck under and drown entirely, so he takes off a spur and tries to splice it on to his crop to probe her with; but it's all no go: not she-she ain't going to budge for any one. Lunatic finds it rather chilly in his wet cords, thinks he's had enough of persuasion and must try force; so nipped off to a farm and fetched a team. The old slut had begun to shiver a bit by then, and was getting numb where she lay. I caught the leader a wipe with my lash just as they began to feel the collar; they ran clear away with her; pulled her out over and over like a log, and half across the field before she knew where she was. She got up all in a tremble. I'll take short odds she don't jump short at water again in a hurry."

"Could you tell the master to draw in that direction, and turn him out a bag fox, we might have a gallop then over a decent country at that rate," suggested Cresswell. I'll go shares in one, if you'll send up to Leadenhall-street for one."

"It would be cheaper at that rate to get a cad to drag a trail of fox's litter that way the next time they draw Guy's coppice," volunteered Rasper.

"Might do once in a way, but wouldn't hold good as a continuance," said Vainables. "I don't see, though, why we shouldn't dodge it for once, as you say, next time they draw that way. Get a real cute cad, put him up to the trick, let him go away sharp at eleven; scent would lie for half an hour, good."

"Hang it all, if it comes to that let's start a drag of our own, and run it when and where we like, at our own time," broke in Cresswell. "Where are hounds to come from?" asked the Major, sceptically. "Pick up half-a-dozen couple anywhere; ample for anythingharriers, draft foxhounds, anything; line hunters-skirters, rioters, babblers: all come in useful at that game, the cheaper the better; save them from the halter and find them in sport; they'll never turn their noses from aniseed when once they've been laid on to it," said Cresswell.

"How about right of way? farmers will soon make it too hot for us.' "We'll try. Square them and butter them judiciously; invite them to join us as guests, not as subscribers of course; send them a dozen or two of wine, and invite them all to a drag dinner. Farmers are sportsmen they might cut up rough if we took French leave; but they ain't the sort to refuse a request-trust 'em for that."

"They'll want such a deal for damages."

"Needn't be any damages: a drag-line can be laid clear of wheat and turnips or ewes and lambs, and does no harm to ordinary pastures." "Who's to hunt it?" "What will it cost?" "How is it to be managed?" "What will the rest of the regiment say to it?" Queries poured in as a volley from all sides.

"Let's take the sense of the meeting about it after mess tonight. I think it sounds like business. We're six regular hunting men, now in barracks: lots more would come out for a certain gallop, twice a week, only four miles at time, which the same nag would do each time, second chargers or anything; no sending on, no pottering at cover, no blanks, lunch sociably at home before starting, and back here again snugly in time for sherry and bitters and a rubber at dark. Will you bring the matter on the tapis, Major? You're the senior. We'll all back you, and put our names down.'

And Cresswell took the company present by coup-de-main, and pledged us to support the motion through thick and thin before we broke up to dress for mess.

CHAP. II.

PREPARATION.

The conclave that after dinner debated upon the momentous proposal of the Major received matters more couleur de rose than the most sanguine of us had expected. The prestige of keeping our 06 own pack"-however scratch, the novelty, independence, and fun of the thing--made a majority welcome the idea for their own gratification, and the rest follow suit with their support, if only as a matter of duty to the regiment, which should be so supported by its full force in all its undertakings, so that whatever were worth doing at all should be worth doing well. There was a strong sense of freemasonry and alliance between all members of the Duke of Cornwall's Own Royal 30th Lancers. With the exception of the Adjutant, whose duties could