A roan cob, with a reputation for unequalled feats in the jumping line, had, after many trials, been secured by Wilfred as a ‘safe conveyance’ for his father. He was, indeed, an extraordinary animal; the sort that some elderly gentlemen are always talking about and never seem able to get.
Wallaby was a red roan, low set, of great power and amazing activity. ‘He could jump anything,’ his former owner declared, ‘and was that fond of it, as you could lead him up to this ’ere three-railed fence with a halter and he’d clear it and jump back without pulling it out of your hand.’ This he proceeded to do before Wilfred and his father, after which there was no question as to his cross-country capability.
Not above 14 hands 2 inches in height, with short legs, his neat head and neck, with sloping shoulders and short back, ranked him as fit to carry a bishop or a banker in Rotten Row. His thighs and gaskins showed where the jumping came from. Besides these excellences, he was quiet, fast, and easy in his paces; so that Mrs. Effingham and the girls had no anxiety about the head of the house when so mounted.
CHAPTER XVII
THE FIRST MEET OF THE LAKE WILLIAM HUNT CLUB
‘What a delightful sight!’ said Miss Fane to Rosamond; ‘and how glad I am that I was so determined to come. I have rather a craze for horses, I know, but doesn’t it look magnificent. What an array! Everybody within a hundred miles must be here. I feel as if I could go out of my senses with excitement. This is strictly between ourselves. But of course you have seen far larger fields.’
‘I was too young before I left home for much in the hunting way,’ said Rosamond, ‘but I was taken to see a throw-off now and then on the first day of the season.’
‘What was it like? A much finer sight than this?’
‘We cannot, of course, compete in appointments—the Hunt servants so neatly got up; the huntsman such a picture, with his weather-beaten face, and the whips so smart and trim. Then the grey-haired squires on their favourite hunters give such a tone to the affair. But we have good horses out to-day, including yours and mine, which would not be unnoticed, even that dear Fergus. He wonders what it is all about.’
‘And the scenery and the belongings?’
‘Well, a lawn in front of a grand historic mansion that has been besieged more than once since the Wars of the Roses must have the pas over anything in Australia. Still, as for scenery, it was often tame, and scarcely came up to that.’