THE SQUIRE’S DAUGHTER.
’Twas the opening day of the season
And the fences were thick and blind,
But we joyously rode to covert,
To a wood where we always find:
And what a crowd of horsemen
Were at the covert side,
In leathers white and scarlet;
All gallant men to ride.
And many a handsome lady
Well mounted for the fray.
I never saw a finer field
Than on that opening day.
But among those noble ladies,
The brightest and most fair,
Was the squire’s only daughter
On a well-bred chestnut mare.
Squire Harding’s only daughter,
Diana she was named;
And throughout the country for her
Splendid riding she was famed:
And not another lady
In the country could compete
With the squire’s only daughter
For beauty, hands, or seat.
Now Miss Diana Harding,
Had suitors, one, two, three:
They were, Captain Browne, Jim Ashton
And the Rev. Thomas Leigh.
The Captain was a hunting man,
Jim Ashton so was he,
And the only one that wasn’t
Was the Rev. Thomas Leigh.
Now Diana to the Captain
And Jim Ashton then did say,
“I will wed the man that brings to me
The fox’s brush to-day.
But there are only two of you,
And I have suitors three,
So, I, myself am riding
For the Rev. Thomas Leigh:
And if I am there before you
When they pull the red fox down
Then Tom Leigh can come and take me
For his very, very own.”
Jim Ashton rode “The Watcher,”
A big upstanding bay,
Who could jump the very stiffest gate
And gallop for a day.
The Captain rode “Olympus,”
A clever looking black,
Who could carry fourteen stone
As if he’d nothing on his back:
And the squire’s only daughter,
To beat this sporting pair,
Came out on little “Heath-bell,”
A well-bred chestnut mare.
And the wildest of excitement
Was seen in every face,
For we all had heard the story
And we waited for the race.
The squire hunted hounds himself,
(As every master should),
And with, “Yooi in there and wind him,”
Capped ’em into Birky Wood.
’Twas a real well bottomed covert
Where the heather and bracken grow,
And the hounds went in with a cheery dash
As if they seemed to know
That the game old white tagged varmint
In his couch of bracken lay,
And the only open fox earth
Was full seven miles away.
The squire himself went with them,
Right down the soft green ride,
And Dan the whipper-in was
Watching on the other side:
First there came a whimper
And then a better note,
And then a splendid chorus
Seemed to burst from every throat.
The squire saw him cross the ride
And cheered his beauties on,
Two, four, six, eight, sixteen couple,
They were at him every one.
“Hark for’ad, for’ad to him”
Came the squire’s voice so gay,
And the next we heard
Was Danny yelling, “Tally ho! Away!”
“Hold hard! Give the hounds a moment.”
We heard the squire roar,
And then like the start for the “National”
Over the grass we tore.
Over a dozen pastures,
Over a brook, and now
Right down a furzy hillside
On to a holding plough.
Passing Brownbeck village,
Bearing away to the right
Till the big, green, rolling common
Of Walton, appeared in sight.
While galloping o’er the common,
Hounds running strong and true,
The squire found his hunter
Had cast his off fore shoe.
With never a check to rest us,
The pace began to tell:
A slip at a double oxer
And Danny the whipper fell.
Like a hare before the greyhounds,
The Captain led the way,
With the squire’s daughter close behind
And Ashton on the bay.
The pack were almost out o’ sight,
And racing hard for blood,
And our horses were white with lather,
And our breeches black with mud.
We saw the hounds pull down their fox
And from the road a man
Run in in time to save the brush;
And then the race began.
The squire’s daughter led the way,
The other two gave chase,
Hardly a neck between the three;
And the rest of us watched the race.
Only one fence between them
And the spot where the screaming pack
Were striving to pull Red Rover
From the man who was beating them back.
Over the fence together,
And then the final burst,
Flogging and spurring like mad folk,
And Jim Ashton got there first.
Crying, as from his horse he sprang,
“Quick, give the brush to me!”
“I rather think I’ll keep it,”
Said the Rev. Thomas Leigh.
