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Most of the fences are high posts-and-rails or "snake" fences, although there is an occasional stone wall, haha, or water-jump. The steepness of the ravines and the density of the timber make it necessary for a horse to be sure-footed and able to scramble anywhere, and the fences are so high that none but very good jumpers can possibly follow the pack.
I am happy to tell you that I have the good fortune to be entered for the Gentlemen's Steeplechase, a most exclusive affair, which is to be brought off at Eltham on the fifteenth of next month. From all accounts it will be a punishing Race, with plenty of rough going, plough, fallow, hedge and ditch, walls, stake-fences and water. The walls and water-jump are, I hear, the worst.
"Now what the devil have you done to yourself? Been taking a water-jump?" Piers turned round. "No, sir. It's nothing. I shouldn't have come in in this state, only it was late, and I thought I'd better report myself." "Nothing!" repeated Sir Beverley. "Why, you're drenched to the skin! Go and change! Go and change! Don't stop to argue! Do you hear me, sir? Go and change!"
No recollection was stirred in him by Escobar's description. Escobar turned away, but he could not quite conceal the relief he felt. "Yes, my friend," said Hardiman to himself, "you have taken your water-jump too. And you're uncommonly glad that you haven't come a cropper." After that noticeable moment of tension, the talk swept on into sprightlier channels. "Shall I take you home?"
The last, widest water-jump was taken with one long, flying leap; and then, doffing his hat low to the Royal Box, the conqueror rode away in a storm of applause. "It's always like that. Brederode never fails in anything he undertakes," said Robert, as happy as if he, and not his friend, had been the victor. "I'm off to congratulate him now."
"Now I 'll bet you two to one he does n't come in second that boy won't get him over the water-jump." "Very well no, I don't want to take odds. I 'll bet you even. I must be a sport." The other protested, while the rest of the party looked on with amusement. "Oh, well, if you insist," said Mr. Newby. "What shall it be?" "A box of the best " "Of the best cigars!" "No; I don't smoke. Candy."
He was taught the long, easy lope. He learned how to gather himself for a sail through the air over a hurdle or a water-jump.
A very curious man most retiring hated society. Then Lord Rosshill related an anecdote concerning an enormous water-jump that he and Lord Kilcarney had taken together; and he also spoke of the late Marquis's aversion to matrimony, and hinted that he had once refused a match which would have relieved the estates of all debt.
They laughed at her enthusiasm. "Newby," said one of the gentlemen, "you 'd better get Miss Catherine to pick your horses for you." Newby winced. "Oh, it 's easy!" said the girl, nonchalantly, "Bone and muscle and a green country boy with a pedigree." As Johnston was leading his horse away, the gentleman who had fallen at the water-jump came up to him. "I want to thank you," he said.
It was not like her to keep her eyes turned away from the horses until some one quite close to her said, 'Well, they 're over the water-jump anyway, when she suddenly raised her field-glasses, with hands that were trembling a little, and kept her eyes fixed on the race.
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