When the hounds were cast off some forty riders were present, but the first fence was a savage one, and stopped all who did not mean genuine hard going.

Twenty-six horses crossed it, one of them ridden by a lady.

A mile or so farther on, before there had been a chance for much tailing, we came to a five-bar gate, out of a road--a jump of just four feet five inches from the take-off.

Up to this, of course, we went one at a time, at a trot or hand-gallop, and twenty-five horses cleared it in succession without a single refusal and with but one mistake.

Owing to the severity of the pace, combined with the average height of the timber (although no one fence was of phenomenally noteworthy proportions), a good many falls took place, resulting in an unusually large percentage of accidents.