The Sun.
London, England, 1866-03-31 00:00:00

Dr. Whewell on Horseback.

The only exercise to which he was partial was
riding. The last fatal accident—and he had had
many previous falls—reminds us that he used to be
called a" a bold, bad rider." This is unjust. Bad
he was not, but very careless. He might often be
seen lolling rather than sitting in his saddle, with
one if not both feet out of the stirrups. That he
was not, in the ordinary sense, a bad rider,
the following example will show. Once, when
he was staying at the then Lord Fitzwilliam's,
his host said to him at breakfast, "We
are all going out hunting ; how will you
amuse yourself, Mr. Whewell ?" He answered—" I
have never been out hunting, and I should like to
go too." Lord Fitzwilliam accordingly mounted him,
and, of course, mounted him well; and, pointing out
the huntsman, said, " If you keep behind that man,
you can't go wrong." The hounds went away across
a stiff country. The huntsman looked round from
to time, expecting to see a divorce between the col-
lege don and his horse ; but no. After clearing
an unusually high fence—" That was a rasper," said
the huntsman. " Indeed," 'replied the other ;
" I did not observe anything remarkable." So he
followed till, worn out with the pace and the
weight of his load, the horse came to a stand still
in the middle of a ploughed field. At dinner Lord
Fitzwilliam asked his guest how he had enjoyed
himself. " Exceedingly," he replied ; " and I have
learned for the first time that the powers of a horse
are not inexhaustible."

This characteristic anecdote was reported to me
on the best authority. I have been led on, almost
unconsciously, to mention it, and now I feel in-
clined to obliterate it as unsuitable to the sad occa-
sion. But the truth is, I cannot yet think of him
as gone for ever ; I cannot associate all that bright
and exuberant life with the darkness and stillness of
the grave.

He will be long missed, and never forgotten.—
W. G. Clark, in Macmillan's Magazine for April.

NOVEL AND DANGEROUS WAGER.—The Elgin
Courier's Cromdale correspondent says :—" A servant lad in
the employ of Mr. Rose, farmer, Delliefure, laid a wager the
other day, against two of his fellow-servants, for half-a-
crown each, that they would not stir for so many minutes
a basin with a handful of snow and a handful of salt. The
challenge was readily taken up by ono of the men named
John Mackintosh, who succeeded in gaining the wager, but
by thetime the last minute was expired his fingers got fixed
in the ice. In a day or two he completely lost the use of his
hand, and inflammation having set in he suffered great
agopy, and had to apply to a doctor for relief. But for the
timely relief afforded by the doctor he would have lost the
use of his arm for life. He is now in a fair way of recovery.'
Mr. Petersen, in whose house President Lincoln
died, has finally received from the Treasury the amount of
his bill charged for the trifling damage dono to his bed-
linen and furniture on that fatal night. Among the items
charged in the bill was one of $l5O for injury done his
carpets, $5O for personal services, $2 for gas, and a large
number of similar charges, amounting in the aggregate
to $293.50. He also made a claim for loss of time in exhibit-
ing the room to visitors which the Secretary of War re-
fuked to