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diff --git a/35521.txt b/35521.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..5802032 --- /dev/null +++ b/35521.txt @@ -0,0 +1,8123 @@ +Project Gutenberg's Riding Recollections, 5th ed., by G. J. Whyte-Melville + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Riding Recollections, 5th ed. + +Author: G. J. Whyte-Melville + +Illustrator: Edgar Giberne + +Release Date: March 8, 2011 [EBook #35521] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK RIDING RECOLLECTIONS, 5TH ED. *** + + + + +Produced by Julia Miller and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was +produced from images generously made available by The +Internet Archive/American Libraries.) + + + + + +Transcriber's Note + +Obvious typographical errors have been corrected. A list of corrections +is found at the end of the text. Oe ligatures have been expanded. + + + + +[Illustration: Frontispiece Page 123.] + + + + + RIDING RECOLLECTIONS. + + + BY + G. J. WHYTE-MELVILLE. + + + _WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY EDGAR GIBERNE._ + + + FIFTH EDITION. + + + LONDON: + CHAPMAN AND HALL, 193, PICCADILLY. + 1878. + + + [_All Rights Reserved._] + + + + + LONDON: + R. CLAY, SONS, AND TAYLOR, PRINTERS, + BREAD STREET HILL. + + + + +Dedicated, + +ON BEHALF OF "THE BRIDLED AND SADDLED," + +TO THE + +"BOOTED AND SPURRED." + + + + +CONTENTS. + + + CHAPTER I. PAGE + KINDNESS 3 + + CHAPTER II. + COERCION 13 + + CHAPTER III. + THE USE OF THE BRIDLE 34 + + CHAPTER IV. + THE ABUSE OF THE SPUR 59 + + CHAPTER V. + HAND 72 + + CHAPTER VI. + SEAT 94 + + CHAPTER VII. + VALOUR 109 + + CHAPTER VIII. + DISCRETION 126 + + CHAPTER IX. + IRISH HUNTERS 144 + + CHAPTER X. + THOROUGH-BRED HORSES 163 + + CHAPTER XI. + RIDING TO FOX-HOUNDS 180 + + CHAPTER XII. + RIDING _at_ STAG-HOUNDS 203 + + CHAPTER XIII. + THE PROVINCES 220 + + CHAPTER XIV. + THE SHIRES 235 + + + + +LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. + + + PAGE + + The Dorsetshire farmer's plan of teaching horses to jump timber 8 + + "If he should drop his hind legs, _shoot_ yourself off over his + shoulders in an instant, with a fast hold of the bridle, at which + tug hard, even though you may not have regained your legs" 32 + + "Lastly, when it gets upon Bachelor, or Benedict, or Othello, or + any other high-flyer with a suggestive name, it sails away close, + often too close, to the hounds leaving brothers, husbands, even + admirers, hopelessly in the rear" (_Frontispiece_) 123 + + "Perhaps we find an easy place under a tree, with an overhanging + branch, and sidle daintily up to it, bending the body and + lowering the head as we creep through, to the admiration of an + indiscreet friend on a rash horse who spoils a good hat and + utters an evil execration, while trying to follow our example" 138 + + "When we canter anxiously up to a sign-post where four roads meet, + with a fresh and eager horse indeed, but not the wildest notion + towards which point of the compass we should direct his energies, + we can but stop to listen, take counsel of a countryman, &c." 193 + + At bay 208 + + "'Come up horse!' and having admonished that faithful servant with + a dig in the ribs from his horn, blows half-a-dozen shrill blasts + in quick succession, sticks the instrument, I shudder to confess + it, in his boot, and proceeds to hustle his old white nag at the + best pace he can command in the wake of his favourites" 225 + + "The King of the Golden Mines" 242 + + + + +RIDING RECOLLECTIONS. + + + +RIDING RECOLLECTIONS. + + +As in the choice of a horse and a wife a man must please himself, +ignoring the opinion and advice of friends, so in the governing of each +it is unwise to follow out any fixed system of discipline. Much depends +on temper, education, mutual understanding and surrounding +circumstances. Courage must not be heated to recklessness, caution +should be implied rather than exhibited, and confidence is simply a +question of time and place. It is as difficult to explain by precept or +demonstrate by example how force, balance, and persuasion ought to be +combined in horsemanship, as to teach the art of floating in the water +or swimming on the back. Practice in either case alone makes perfect, +and he is the most apt pupil who brings to his lesson a good opinion of +his own powers and implicit reliance on that which carries him. Trust +the element or the animal and you ride aloft superior to danger; but +with misgiving comes confusion, effort, breathlessness, possibly +collapse and defeat. Morally and physically, there is no creature so +nervous as a man out of his depth. + +In offering the following pages to the public, the writer begs +emphatically to disclaim any intention of laying down the law on such a +subject as horsemanship. Every man who wears spurs believes himself more +or less an adept in the art of riding; and it would be the height of +presumption for one who has studied that art as a pleasure and not a +profession to dictate for the ignorant, or enter the lists of argument +with the wise. All he can lay claim to is a certain amount of +experience, the result of many happy hours spent with the noble animal +under him, of some uncomfortable minutes when mutual indiscretion has +caused that position to be reversed. + +If the few hints he can offer should prove serviceable to the beginner +he will feel amply rewarded, and will only ask to be kindly remembered +hereafter in the hour of triumph when the tyro of a riding-school has +become the pride of a hunting-field,--judicious, cool, daring, and +skilful--light of hand, firm of seat, thoroughly at home in the saddle, +a very Centaur + + "Encorpsed and demi-natured + With the brave beast." + + + + +CHAPTER I. + +KINDNESS. + + +In our dealings with the brute creation, it cannot be too much insisted +on that mutual confidence is only to be established by mutual good-will. +The perceptions of the beast must be raised to their highest standard, +and there is no such enemy to intelligence as fear. Reward should be as +the daily food it eats, punishment as the medicine administered on rare +occasions, unwillingly, and but when absolute necessity demands. The +horse is of all domestic animals most susceptible to anything like +discomfort or ill-usage. Its nervous system, sensitive and highly +strung, is capable of daring effort under excitement, but collapses +utterly in any new and strange situation, as if paralysed by +apprehensions of the unknown. Can anything be more helpless than the +young horse you take out hunting the first time he finds himself in a +bog? Compare his frantic struggles and sudden prostration with the +discreet conduct of an Exmoor pony in the same predicament. The one +terrified by unaccustomed danger, and relying instinctively on the speed +that seems his natural refuge, plunges wildly forward, sinks to his +girths, his shoulders, finally unseats his rider, and settles down, +without further exertion, in the stupid apathy of despair. + +The other, born and bred in the wild west country, picking its scanty +keep from a foal off the treacherous surface of a Devonshire moor, +either refuses altogether to trust the quagmire, or shortens its stride, +collects its energies, chooses the soundest tufts that afford foothold, +and failing these, flaps its way out on its side, to scramble into +safety with scarce a quiver or a snort. It has been there before! Herein +lies the whole secret. Some day your young one will be as calm, as wise, +as tractable. Alas! that when his discretion has reached its prime his +legs begin to fail! + +Therefore cultivate his intellect--I use the word advisedly--even +before you enter on the development of his physical powers. Nature and +good keep will provide for these, but to make him man's willing friend +and partner you must give him the advantage of man's company and man's +instruction. From the day you slip a halter over his ears he should be +encouraged to look to you, like a child, for all his little wants and +simple pleasures. He should come cantering up from the farthest corner +of the paddock when he hears your voice, should ask to have his nose +rubbed, his head stroked, his neck patted, with those honest, pleading +looks which make the confidence of a dumb creature so touching; and +before a roller has been put on his back, or a snaffle in his mouth he +should be convinced that everything you do to him is right, and that it +is impossible for _you_, his best friend, to cause him the least +uneasiness or harm. + +I once owned a mare that would push her nose into my pockets in search +of bread and sugar, would lick my face and hands like a dog, or suffer +me to cling to any part of her limbs and body while she stood perfectly +motionless. On one occasion, when I hung in the stirrup after a fall, +she never stirred on rising, till by a succession of laborious and +ludicrous efforts I could swing myself back into the saddle, with my +foot still fast, though hounds were running hard and she loved hunting +dearly in her heart. As a friend remarked at the time, "The little mare +seems very fond of you, or there might have been a bother!" + +Now this affection was but the result of petting, sugar, kind and +encouraging words, particularly at her fences, and a rigid abstinence +from abuse of the bridle and the spur. I shall presently have something +to say about both these instruments, but I may remark in the mean time +that many more horses than people suppose will cross a country safely +with a loose rein. The late Colonel William Greenwood, one of the finest +riders in the world, might be seen out hunting with a single +curb-bridle, such as is called "a hard-and-sharp" and commonly used only +in the streets of London or the Park. The present Lord Spencer, of whom +it is enough to say that he hunts one pack of his own hounds in +Northamptonshire, and is always _in the same field with them_, never +seems to have a horse pull, or until it is tired, even lean on his hand. +I have watched both these gentlemen intently to learn their secret, but +I regret to say without avail. + +This, however, is not the present question. Long before a bridle is +fitted on the colt's head he should have so thoroughly learned the habit +of obedience, that it has become a second instinct, and to do what is +required of him seems as natural as to eat when he is hungry or lie down +when he wants to sleep. + +This result is to be attained in a longer or shorter time, according to +different tempers, but the first and most important step is surely +gained when we have succeeded in winning that affection which nurses and +children call "cupboard love." Like many amiable characters on two legs, +the quadruped is shy of acquaintances but genial with friends. Make him +understand that you are his best and wisest, that all you do conduces to +his comfort and happiness, be careful at first not to deceive or +disappoint him, and you will find his reasoning powers quite strong +enough to grasp the relations of cause and effect. + +In a month or six weeks he will come to your call, and follow you about +like a dog. Soon he will let you lift his feet, handle him all over, +pull his tail, and lean your weight on any part of his body, without +alarm or resentment. When thoroughly familiar with your face, your +voice, and the motions of your limbs, you may back him with perfect +safety, and he will move as soberly under you in any place to which he +is accustomed as the oldest horse in your stable. + +Do not forget, however, that education should be gradual as moon-rise, +perceptible, not in progress, but result. I recollect one morning riding +to covert with a Dorsetshire farmer whose horses, bred at home, were +celebrated as timber-jumpers even in that most timber-jumping of +countries. I asked him how they arrived at this proficiency without +breaking somebody's neck, and he imparted his plan. + +The colt, it seemed, ran loose from a yearling in the owner's +straw-yard, but fed in a lofty out-house, across the door of which was +placed a single tough ashen bar that would not break under a bullock. +This was laid on the ground till the young one had grown thoroughly +accustomed to it, and then raised very gradually to such a height as was +less trouble to jump than clamber over. At three feet the two-year old +thought no more of the obstacle than a girl does of her skipping-rope. +After that, it was heightened an inch every week, and it needs no ready +reckoner to tell us at the end of six months how formidable a leap the +animal voluntarily negotiated three times a day. "It's never put no +higher," continued my informant; "I'm an old man now, and that's good +enough for me." + +I should think it was! A horse that can leap five feet of timber in cold +blood is not likely to be pounded, while still unblown, in any part of +England I have yet seen. + +[Illustration: Page 8.] + +Now the Dorsetshire farmer's system was sound, and based on common +sense. As you bend the twig so grows the tree, therefore prepare your +pupil from the first for the purpose you intend him to serve hereafter. +An Arab foal, as we know, brought up in the Bedouin's tent, like another +child, among the Bedouin's children, is the most docile of its kind, and +I cannot but think that if he lived in our houses and we took as much +notice of him, the horse would prove quite as sagacious as the dog; but +we must never forget that to harshness or intimidation he is the most +sensitive of creatures, and even when in fault should be rather +cautioned than reproved. + +An ounce of illustration is worth a pound of argument, and the following +example best conveys the spirit in which our brave and willing servant +should be treated by his lord. + +Many years ago, when he hunted the Cottesmore country, Sir Richard +Sutton's hounds had been running hard from Glooston Wood along the +valley under Cranehoe by Slawston to Holt. After thirty minutes or so +over this beautiful, but exceedingly stiff line, their heads went up, +and they came to a check, possibly from their own dash and eagerness, +certainly, at that pace and amongst those fences, _not from being +overridden_. + +"Turn 'em, Ben!" exclaimed Sir Richard, with a dirty coat, and Hotspur +in a lather, but determined not to lose a moment in getting after his +fox. "Yes, Sir Richard," answered Morgan, running his horse without a +moment's hesitation at a flight of double-posts and rails, with a ditch +in the middle and one on each side! The good grey, having gone in front +from the find, was perhaps a little blown, and dropping his hind legs in +the farthest ditch, rolled very handsomely into the next field. "It's +not _your_ fault, old man!" said Ben, patting his favourite on the neck +as they rose together in mutual good-will, adding in the same breath, +while he leapt to the saddle, and Tranby acknowledged the line--"Forrard +on, Sir Richard!--Hoic together, hoic! You'll have him directly, my +beauties! He's a Quorn fox, and he'll do you good!" + +I had always considered Ben Morgan an unusually fine rider. For the +first time, I began to understand _why_ his horse never failed to carry +him so willingly and so well. + +I do not remember whether Dick Webster was out with us that day, but I +am sure if he was he has not forgotten it, and I mention him as another +example of daring horsemanship combined with an imperturbable good +humour, almost verging on buffoonery, which seems to accept the most +dangerous falls as enhancing the fun afforded by a delightful game of +romps. His annual exhibition of prowess at the Islington horse show has +made his shrewd comical face so familiar to the public that his name, +without farther comment, is enough to recall the presence and bearing of +the man--his quips and cranks and merry jests, his shrill whistle and +ready smile, his strong seat and light, skilful hand, but above all his +untiring patience and unfailing kindness with the most restive and +refractory of pupils. Dick, like many other good fellows, is not so +young as he was, but he will probably be an unequalled rider at eighty, +and I am quite sure that if he lives to the age of Methuselah, the +extreme of senile irritability will never provoke him to lose his temper +with a horse. + +Presence of mind under difficulties is the one quality that in riding +makes all the difference between getting off with a scramble and going +down with a fall. If unvaried kindness has taught your horse to place +confidence in his rider, he will have his wits about him, and provide +for _your_ safety as for his own. When left to himself, and not flurried +by the fear of punishment, even an inexperienced hunter makes surprising +efforts to keep on his legs, and it is not too much to say that while +his wind lasts, the veteran is almost as difficult to catch tripping as +a cat. I have known horses drop their hind legs on places scarcely +affording foothold for a goat, but in all such feats they have been +ridden by a lover of the animal, who trusts it implicitly, and rules by +kindness rather than fear. + +I will not deny that there are cases in which the _suaviter in modo_ +must be supplemented by the _fortiter in re_. Still the insubordination +of ignorance is never wholly inexcusable, and great discretion must be +used in repressing even the most violent of outbreaks. If severity is +absolutely required, be sure to temper justice with mercy, remembering +that, in brute natures at least, the more you spare the rod, the less +you spoil the child! + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +COERCION. + + +I recollect, in years gone by, an old and pleasant comrade used to +declare that "to be in a rage was almost as contemptible as to be in a +funk!" Doubtless the passion of anger, though less despised than that of +fear, is so far derogatory to the dignity of man that it deprives him +temporarily of reason, the very quality which confers sovereignty over +the brute. When a magician is without his talisman the slaves he used to +rule will do his bidding no longer. When we say of such a one that he +has "lost his head," we no more expect him to steer a judicious course +than a ship that has lost her rudder. Both are the prey of +circumstances--at the mercy of winds and waves. Therefore, however hard +you are compelled to hit, be sure to keep your temper. Strike in perfect +good-humour, and in the right place. Many people cannot encounter +resistance of any kind without anger, even a difference of opinion in +conversation is sufficient to rouse their bile; but such are seldom +winners in argument or in fight. Let them also leave education alone. +Nature never meant them to teach the young idea how to shoot or hunt, or +do anything else! + +It is the cold-blooded and sagacious wrestler who takes the prize, the +calm and imperturbable player who wins the game. In all struggles for +supremacy, excitement only produces flurry, and flurry means defeat. + +Who ever saw Mr. Anstruther Thompson in a passion, though, like every +other huntsman and master of hounds, he must often have found his temper +sorely tried? And yet, when punishment is absolutely necessary to extort +obedience from the equine rebel, no man can administer it more severely, +either from the saddle or the box. But whether double-thonging a restive +wheeler, or "having it out" with a resolute buck-jumper, the operation +is performed with the same pleasant smile, and when one of the +adversaries preserves calmness and common sense, the fight is soon over, +and the victory gained. + +It is not every man, however, who possesses this gentleman's iron +nerve and powerful frame. For most of us, it is well to remember, before +engaging in such contests, that defeat is absolute ruin. We must be +prepared to fight it out to the bitter end, and if we are not sure of +our own firmness, either mental or physical it is well to temporise, and +try to win by diplomacy the terms we dare not wrest by force. If the +latter alternative must needs be accepted, in this as in most stand-up +fights, it will be found that the first blow is half the battle. The +rider should take his horse short by the head and let him have two or +three stingers with a cutting whip--not more--particularly, if on a +thorough-bred one, as low down the flanks as can be reached, +administered without warning, and in quick succession, sitting back as +prepared for the plunge into the air that will inevitably follow, +keeping his horse's head well-up the while to prevent buck-jumping. He +should then turn the animal round and round half-a-dozen times, till it +is confused, and start it off at speed in any direction where there is +room for a gallop. Blown, startled, and intimidated, he will in all +probability find his pupil perfectly amenable to reason when he pulls +up, and should then coax and soothe him into an equable frame of mind +once more. Such, however, is an extreme case. It is far better to avoid +the _ultima ratio_. In equitation, as in matrimony, there should never +arise "_the first quarrel_." Obedience, in horses, ought to be a matter +of habit, contracted so imperceptibly that its acquirement can scarcely +be called a lesson. + +This is why the hunting-field is such a good school for leaping. Horses +of every kind are prompted by some unaccountable impulse to follow a +pack of hounds, and the beginner finds himself voluntarily performing +feats of activity and daring, in accordance with the will of his rider, +which no coercion from the latter would have induced him to attempt. +Flushed with success, and if fortunate enough to escape a fall, +confident in his lately-discovered powers, he finds a new pleasure in +their exercise, and, most precious of qualities in a hunter, grows "fond +of jumping." + +The same result is to be attained at home, but is far more gradual, +requiring the exercise of much care, patience, and perseverance. + +Nevertheless, when we consider the inconvenience created by the vagaries +of young horses in the hunting field, to hounds, sportsmen, ladies, +pedestrians, and their own riders, we must admit that the Irish system +is best, and that a colt, to use the favourite expression, should have +been trained into "an accomplished lepper," before he is asked to carry +a sportsman through a run. + +Mr. Rarey, no doubt, thoroughly understood the nature of the animal +with which he had to deal. His system was but a convenient application +of our principle, viz., Judicious coercion, so employed that the brute +obeys the man without knowing why. When forced to the earth, and +compelled to remain there, apparently by the mere volition of a creature +so much smaller and feebler than itself, it seemed to acknowledge some +mysterious and over-mastering power such as the disciples of Mesmer +profess to exercise on their believers, and this, in truth, is the whole +secret of man's dominion over the beasts of the field. It is founded, to +speak practically, on reason in both, the larger share being apportioned +to the weaker frame. If by terror or resentment, the result of +injudicious severity, that reason becomes obscured in the stronger +animal, we have a maniac to deal with, possessing the strength of ten +human beings, over whom we have lost our only shadow of control! Where +is our supremacy then? It existed but in the imagination of the beast, +for which, so long as it never tried to break the bond, a silken thread +was as strong as an iron chain. + +Perhaps this is the theory of all government, but with the conduct and +coercion of mankind we have at present nothing to do. + +There is a peculiarity in horses that none who spend much time in the +saddle can have failed to notice. It is the readiness with which all +accommodate themselves to a rider who succeeds in subjugating _one_. +Some men possess a faculty, impossible to explain, of establishing a +good understanding from the moment they place themselves in the saddle. +It can hardly be called hand, for I have seen consummate horsemen, +notably Mr. Lovell, of the New Forest, who have lost an arm; nor seat, +or how could Colonel Fraser, late of the 11th Hussars, be one of the +best heavy-weights over such a country as Meath, with a broken and +contracted thigh? Certainly not nerve, for there are few fields too +scanty to furnish examples of men who possess every quality of +horsemanship except daring. What is it then? I cannot tell, but if you +are fortunate enough to possess it, whether you weigh ten stone or +twenty, you will be able to mount yourself fifty pounds cheaper than +anybody else in the market! Be it an impulse of nature, or a result of +education, there is a tendency in every horse to make vigorous efforts +at the shortest notice in obedience to the inclination of a rider's body +or the pressure of his limbs. Such indications are of the utmost service +in an emergency, and to offer them at the happy moment is a crucial test +of horsemanship. Thus races are "snatched out of the fire," as it is +termed, "by riding," and this is the quality that, where judgment, +patience, and knowledge of pace are equal, renders one jockey superior +to the rest. It enables a proficient also to clear those large fences +that, in our grazing districts especially, appear impracticable to the +uninitiated, as if the horse borrowed muscular energy, no less than +mental courage, from the resolution of his rider. On the racecourse and +in the hunting field, Custance, the well-known jockey, possesses this +quality in the highest degree. The same determined strength in the +saddle, that had done him such good service amongst the bullfinches and +"oxers" of his native Rutland, applied at the happy moment, secured on a +great occasion his celebrated victory with King Lud. + +There are two kinds of hunters that require coercion in following +hounds, and he is indeed a master of his art who feels equally at home +on each. The one must be _steered_, the other _smuggled_ over a country. +As he is never comfortable but in front, we will take the rash horse +first. + +Let us suppose you have not ridden him before, that you like his +appearance, his action, all his qualities except his boundless ambition, +that you are in a practicable country, as seems only fair, and about to +draw a covert affording every prospect of a run. Before you put your +foot in the stirrup be sure to examine his bit--not one groom in a +hundred knows how to bridle a horse properly--and remember that on the +fitting of this important article depends your success, your enjoyment, +perhaps your safety, during the day. Horses, like servants, will never +let their master be happy if they are uncomfortable themselves. See that +your headstall is long enough, so that the pressure may lie on the bars +of the horse's mouth and not crumple up the corners of his lips, like a +gag. The curb-chain will probably be too tight, also the throat-lash; if +so, loosen both, and with your own hands; it is a pleasant way of making +acquaintance, and may perhaps prepossess him in your favour. If he wears +a nose-band it will be time enough to take it off when you find he shows +impatience of the restriction by shaking his head, changing his leg +frequently, or reaching unjustifiably at the rein. + +I am prejudiced against the nose-band. I frankly admit a man in a +minority of one _must_ be wrong, but I never rode a horse in my life +that, to my own feeling, did not go more comfortably when I took it off. + +Look also to your girths. For a fractious temper they are very +irritating when drawn too tight, while with good shape and a +breast-plate, there is little danger of their not being tight enough. +When these preliminaries have been carefully gone through mount nimbly +to the saddle, and take the first opportunity of feeling your new +friend's mouth and paces in trot, canter, and gallop. Here, too, though +in general it should be avoided for many reasons, social, agricultural, +and personal, a little "larking" is not wholly inexcusable. It will +promote cordiality between man and beast. The latter, as we are +considering him, is sure to be fond of jumping, and to ride him over a +fence or two away from other horses in cold blood will create in his +mind the very desirable impression that you are of a daring spirit, +determined to be in front. + +Take him, however, up to his leap as slow as he will permit--if +possible at a trot. Even should he break into a canter and become +impetuous at last, there is no space for a violent rush in three +strides, during which you must hold him in a firm, equable grasp. As he +leaves the ground give him his head, he cannot have "too much rope," +till he lands again, when, as soon as possible, you should pull him back +to a trot, handling him delicately, soothing him with voice and gesture, +treating the whole affair as the simplest matter of course. Do not bring +him again over the same place, rather take him on for two or three +fields in a line parallel to the hounds. By the time they are put into +covert you will have established a mutual understanding, and found out +how much you _dislike_ one another at the worst! It is well now to avoid +the crowd, but beware of taking up a position by yourself where you may +head the fox! No man can ride in good-humour under a sense of guilt, and +you _must_ be good-humoured with such a mount as you have under you +to-day. + +Exhaust, therefore, all your knowledge of woodcraft to get away on good +terms with the hounds. The wildest romp in a rush of horses is often +perfectly temperate and amenable when called on to cut out the work. +Should you, by ill luck, find yourself behind others in the first field, +avoid, if possible, following any one of them over the first fence. Even +though it be somewhat black and forbidding, choose a fresh place, so +free a horse as yours will jump the more carefully that his attention is +not distracted by a leader, and there is the further consideration, +based on common humanity, that your leader might fall when too late for +you to stop. No man is in so false a position as he who rides over a +friend in the hunting field, except the friend! + +Take your own line. If you be not afraid to gallop and the hounds _run +on_, you will probably find it plain sailing till they check. Should a +brook laugh in your face, of no unreasonable dimensions, you may charge +it with confidence, a rash horse usually jumps width, and there will be +plenty of "room to ride" on the far side. It takes but a few feet of +water to decimate a field. I may here observe that, if, as they cross, +you see the hounds leap at it, even though they fall short, you may be +sure the distance from bank to bank is within the compass of a hunter's +stride. + +At timber, I would not have you quite so confident. When, as in +Leicestershire, it is set fairly in line with the fence and there is a +good take-off, your horse, however impetuous, may leap it with impunity +in his stroke, but should the ground be poached by cattle, or dip as you +come to it, beware of too great hurry. The feat ought then to be +accomplished calmly and collectedly at a trot, the horse taking his +time, so to speak, from the motions of his rider, and jumping, as it is +called, "to his hand." Now when man and horse are at variance on so +important a matter as pace, the one is almost sure to interfere at the +wrong moment, the other to take off too soon or get too close under his +leap; in either case the animal is more likely to rise at a fence than a +rail, and if unsuccessful in clearing it a binder is less dangerous to +flirt with than a bar. Lord Wilton seems to me to ride at timber a turn +slower than usual, Lord Grey a turn faster. Whether father and son +differ in theory I am unable to say, I can only affirm that both are +undeniable in practice. Mr. Fellowes of Shottisham, perhaps the best of +his day, and Mr. Gilmour, _facile princeps_, almost walk up to this kind +of leap; Colonel, now General Pearson, known for so many seasons as "the +flying Captain," charges it like a squadron of Sikh cavalry; Captain +Arthur Smith pulls back to a trot; Lord Carington scarcely shortens the +stride of his gallop. Who shall decide between such professors? Much +depends on circumstances, more perhaps on horses. Assheton Smith used to +throw the reins on a hunter's neck when rising at a gate, and +say,--"Take care of yourself, you brute!"--whereas the celebrated Lord +Jersey, who gave me this information of his old friend's style, held his +own bridle in a vice at such emergencies, and both usually got safe +over! Perhaps the logical deduction from these conflicting examples +should be not to jump timber at all! + +But the rash horse is by this time getting tired, and now, if you would +avoid a casualty, you must temper valour with discretion, and ride him +as skilfully as you _can_. + +He has probably carried you well and pleasantly during the few happy +moments that intervened between freshness and fatigue; now he is +beginning to pull again, but in a more set and determined manner than at +first. He does not collect himself so readily, and wants to go faster +than ever at his fences, if you would let him. This careless, rushing +style threatens a downfall, and to counteract it will require the +exercise of your utmost skill. Carry his head for him, since he seems to +require it, and endeavour, by main force if necessary, to bring him to +his leaps with his hind legs under him. Half-beaten horses measure +distance with great accuracy, and "lob" over very large places, when +properly ridden. If, notwithstanding all your precautions, he persists +in going on his shoulders, blundering through his places, and labouring +across ridge and furrow like a boat in a heavy sea, take advantage of +the first lane you find, and voting the run nearly over, make up your +mind to view the rest of it in safety from the hard road! + +Ride the same horse again at the first opportunity, and, if sound +enough to come out in his turn, a month's open weather will probably +make him a very pleasant mount. + +The "slug," a thorough-bred one, we will say, with capital hind-ribs, +lop ears, and a lazy eye, must be managed on a very different system +from the foregoing. You need not be so particular about his bridle, for +the coercion in this case is of impulsion rather than restraint, but I +would advise you to select a useful cutting-whip, stiff and strong +enough to push a gate. Not that you must use it freely--one or two +"reminders" at the right moment, and an occasional flourish, ought to +carry you through the day. Be sure, too, that you strike underhanded, +and not in front of your own body, lest you take his eye off at the +critical moment when your horse is measuring his leap. The best riders +prefer such an instrument to the spurs, as a stimulant to increased pace +and momentary exertion. + +You will have little trouble with this kind of hunter while hounds are +drawing. He will seem only too happy to stand still, and you may sit +amongst your friends in the middle ride, smoking, joking, and holding +forth to your heart's content. But, like the fox, you will find your +troubles begin with the cheering holloa of "Gone away!" + +On your present mount, instead of avoiding the crowd, I should advise +you to keep in the very midst of the torrent that, pent up in covert, +rushes down the main ride to choke a narrow handgate, and overflow the +adjoining field. Emerging from the jaws of their inconvenient egress, +they will scatter, like a row of beads when the string breaks, and while +the majority incline to right or left, regardless of the line of chase +as compared with that of safety, some half dozen are sure to single +themselves out, and ride straight after the hounds. + +Select one of these, a determined horseman, whom you know to be mounted +on an experienced hunter; give him _plenty of room_--fifty yards at +least--and ride his line, nothing doubting, fence for fence, till your +horse's blood is up, and your own too. I cannot enough insist on a +jealous care of your leader's safety, and a little consideration for his +prejudices. The boldest sportsmen are exceedingly touchy about being +ridden over, and not without reason. There is something unpleasantly +suggestive in the bit, and teeth, and tongue of an open mouth at your +ear; while your own horse, quivering high in air, makes the discovery +that he has not allowed margin enough for the yawner under his nose! It +is little less inexcusable to pick a man's pocket than to ride in it; +and no apology can exonerate so flagrant an assault as to land on him +when down. Reflect, also, that a hunter, after the effort to clear his +fence, often loses foothold, particularly over ridge and furrow, in the +second or third stride, and falls at the very moment a follower would +suppose he was safe over. Therefore, do not begin for yourself till your +leader is twenty yards into the next field when you may harden your +heart, set your muscles, and give your horse to understand, by seat and +manner, that it must be in, through, or over. + +Beware, however, of hurrying him off his legs. Ride him resolutely, +indeed, but in a short, contracted stride; slower in proportion to the +unwillingness he betrays, so as to hold him in a vice, and squeeze him +up to the brink of his task, when, forbidden to turn from it, he will +probably make his effort in self-defence, and take you somehow to the +other side. Not one hunter in a hundred can jump in good form when going +at speed; it is the perfection of equine prowess, resulting from great +quickness and the confidence of much experience. An arrant refuser +usually puts on the steam of his own accord, like a confirmed rusher, +and wheels to right or left at the last moment, with an activity that, +displayed in a better cause, would be beyond praise. The rider, too, has +more command of his horse, when forced up to the bit in a slow canter, +than at any other pace. + +Thoroughbred horses, until their education is complete, are apt to get +very close to their fences, preferring, as it would seem, to go into +them on this side rather than the other. It is not a style that inspires +confidence; yet these crafty, careful creatures are safer than they +seem, and from jumping in a collected form, with their hind-legs under +them, extricate themselves with surprising address from difficulties +that, after a little more tuition, they will never be in. They are +really less afraid of their fences, and consequently less flurried, than +the wilful, impetuous brute that loses its equanimity from the moment it +catches sight of an obstacle, and miscalculating its distance, in sheer +nervousness--most fatal error of all--takes off too soon. + +I will now suppose that in the wake of your pilot you have negotiated +two or three fences with some expenditure of nerve and temper, but +without a refusal or a fall. The cutting-whip has been applied, and the +result, perhaps, was disappointing, for it is an uncertain remedy, +though, in my opinion, preferable to the spur. Your horse has shown +great leaping powers in the distances he has covered without the +momentum of speed, and has doubled an on-and-off with a precision not +excelled by your leader himself. If he would but jump in his stride, you +feel you have a hunter under you. Should the country be favourable, now +is the time to teach him this accomplishment, while his limbs are supple +and his spirit roused. If he seems willing to face them, let him take +his fences in his own way; do not force or hurry him, but keep fast hold +of his head without varying the pressure of hand or limb by a +hairsbreadth; the least uncertainty of finger or inequality of seat will +spoil it all. Should the ditch be towards him, he will jump from a +stand, or nearly so, but, to your surprise, will land safe in the next +field. If it is on the far side, he will show more confidence, and will +perhaps swing over the whole with something of an effort in his canter. +A foot or two of extra width may cause him to drop a hind-leg, or even +bring him on his nose;--so much the better! no admonition of yours would +have proved as effectual a warning--he will take good care to cover +distance enough next time. Dispense with your leader now, if you are +pretty close to the hounds, for your horse is gathering confidence with +every stride. He can gallop, of course, and is good through dirt--it is +also understood that he is fit to go; there are not many in a season, +but let us suppose you have dropped into a run; if he carries you well +to the finish, he will be a hunter from to-day. + +After some five and twenty minutes, you will find him going with more +dash and freedom, as his neighbours begin to tire. You may now ride him +at timber without scruple, when not too high, but avoid a rail that +looks as if it would break. To find out he may tamper with such an +obstacle is the most dangerous discovery a hunter can make. You should +send him at it pretty quick, lest he get too near to rise, and refuse at +the last moment. He may not do it in the best of form, but whether he +chances it in his gallop, or bucks over like a deer, or hoists himself +sideways all in a heap, with his tail against your hat, at this kind of +fence this kind of horse is most unlikely to fall. + +The same may be said of a brook. If he is within a fair distance of the +hounds, and you see by the expression of his ears and crest that he is +watching them with ardent interest, ride him boldly at water should it +be necessary. It is quite possible he may jump it in his stride from +bank to bank, without a moment's hesitation. It is equally possible he +may stop short on the bank, with lowered head and crouching quarters as +if prepared to drink, or dive, or decline. He will do none of these. Sit +still, give him his head, keep close into your saddle, not moving so +much as an eyelash, and it is more than probable that he will jump the +stream standing, and reach the other side, with a scramble and a +flounder at the worst! + +If he should drop his hind-legs, _shoot_ yourself off over his shoulders +in an instant, with a fast hold of the bridle, at which tug hard; even +though you may not have regained your legs. A very slight help now will +enable him to extricate himself, but if he is allowed to subside into +the gulf, it may take a team of cart horses to drag him out. + +When in the saddle again give him a timely pull; after the struggle you +will be delighted with each other, and have every prospect of going on +triumphantly to the end. + +[Illustration: Page 32.] + +I have here endeavoured to describe the different methods of coercion +by which two opposite natures may be induced to exert themselves on our +behalf in the chase. Every horse inclines, more or less, to one or other +extreme I have cited as an example. A perfect hunter has preserved the +good qualities of each without the faults, but how many perfect hunters +do any of us ride in our lives? The chestnut is as fast as the wind, +stout and honest, a safe and gallant fencer, but too light a mouth makes +him difficult to handle at blind and cramped places; the bay can leap +like a deer, and climb like a goat, invincible at doubles, and +unrivalled at rails, but, as bold Lord Cardigan said of an equally +accomplished animal, "it takes him a long time to get from one bit of +timber to another!" While the brown, even faster than the chestnut, even +safer than the bay, would be the best, as he is the pleasantest hunter +in the world--only nothing will induce him to go near a brook! + +It is only by exertion of a skill that is the embodiment of thought in +action, by application of a science founded on reason, experience and +analogy, that we can approach perfection in our noble four-footed +friend. Common-sense will do much, kindness more, coercion very little, +yet we are not to forget that man is the master; that the hand, however +light, must be strong, the heel, however lively, must be resolute; and +that when persuasion, best of all inducements, seems to fail, we must +not shrink from the timely application of force. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +THE USE OF THE BRIDLE. + + +The late Mr. Maxse, celebrated some fifty years ago for a fineness of +hand that enabled him to cross Leicestershire with fewer falls than any +other sportsman of fifteen stone who rode equally straight, used to +profess much comical impatience with the insensibility of his servants +to this useful quality. He was once seen explaining what he meant to his +coachman with a silk-handkerchief passed round a post. + +"Pull at it!" said the master. "Does it pull at you?" + +"Yes, sir," answered the servant, grinning. + +"Slack it off then. Does it pull at you now?" + +"No, sir." + +"Well then, you double-distilled fool, can't you see that your horses +are like that post? If you don't pull at _them_ they won't pull at +_you_!" + +Now it seems to me that in riding and driving also, what we want to +teach our horses is, that when we pull at them they are _not_ to pull at +us, and this understanding is only to be attained by a delicacy of +touch, a harmony of intention, and a give-and-take concord, that for +lack of a better we express by the term "hand." Like the fingering of a +pianoforte, this desirable quality seems rather a gift than an +acquirement, and its rarity has no doubt given rise to the multiplicity +of inventions with which man's ingenuity endeavours to supply the want +of manual skill. + +It was the theory of a celebrated Yorkshire sportsman, the well-known +Mr. Fairfax, that "Every horse is a hunter if you don't throw him down +with the bridle!" and I have always understood his style of riding was +in perfect accordance with this daring profession of faith. The +instrument, however, though no doubt producing ten falls, where it +prevents one, is in so far a necessary evil, that we are helpless +without it, and when skilfully used in conjunction with legs, knees, and +body by a consummate horseman, would seem to convey the man's intentions +to the beast through some subtle agency, mysterious and almost rapid as +thought. It is impossible to define the nature of that sympathy which +exists between a well-bitted horse and his rider, they seem actuated by +a common impulse, and it is to promote or create this mutual +understanding that so many remarkable conceits, generally painful, have +been dignified with the name of bridles. In the saddle-room of any +hunting-man may be found at least a dozen of these, but you will +probably learn on inquiry, that three or four at most are all he keeps +in use. It must be a stud of strangely-varying mouths and tempers which, +the snaffle, gag, Pelham, and double-bridle are insufficient to humour +and control. + +As it seems from the oldest representations known of men on horseback, +to have been the earliest in use, we will take the snaffle first. + +This bit, the invention of common-sense going straight to its object, +while lying easily on the tongue and bars of a horse's mouth, and +affording control without pain, is perfection of its kind. It causes no +annoyance and consequently no alarm to the unbroken colt, champing and +churning freely at the new plaything between his jaws; on it the highly +trained charger bears pleasantly and lightly, to "change his +leg,"--"passage"--or "shoulder in," at the slightest inflection of a +rider's hand; the hunter leans against it for support in deep ground; +and the race-horse allows it to hold him together at nearly full-speed +without contracting his stride, or by fighting with the restriction, +wasting any of his gallop in the air. It answers its purpose admirably +_so long as it remains in the proper place_, but not a moment longer. +Directly a horse by sticking out his nose can shift this pressure to his +lips and teeth, it affords no more control than a halter. With head up, +and mouth open, he can go how and where he will. In such a predicament +only an experienced horseman has the skill to give him such an amount of +liberty without license as cajoles him into dropping again to his +bridle, before he breaks away. Once off at speed, with the conviction +that he is master, however ludicrous in appearance, the affair is +serious enough in fact. + +Many centuries elapsed, and a good deal of unpleasant riding must have +been endured, before the snaffle was supplemented with a martingale. +Judging from the Elgin Marbles, this useful invention seems to have been +wholly unknown to the Greeks. Though the men's figures are perfect in +seat and attitude through the whole of that spirited frieze which +adorned the Parthenon, not one of their horses carries its head in the +right place. The ancient Greek seems to have relied on strength rather +than cunning, in his dealings with the noble animal, and though he sat +down on it like a workman, must have found considerable difficulty in +guiding his beast the way he wanted to go. + +But with a martingale, the most insubordinate soon discover that they +cannot rid themselves of control. It keeps their heads down in a +position that enables the bit to act on the mouth, and if they must +needs pull, obliges them to pull against that most sensitive part called +the bars. There is no escape--bend their necks they must, and to bend +their necks means to acknowledge a master and do homage to the rider's +will. + +It is a well-known fact, and I can attest it by my own experience, that +a _twisted_ snaffle with a martingale will hold a runaway when every +other bridle fails; but to guide or stop an animal by the exercise of +bodily strength is not horsemanship, and to saw at its mouth for the +purpose cannot be expected to promote that sympathy of desire and +intention which we understand by the term. + +If we look at the sporting prints of our grandfathers and +great-grandfathers, as delineated, early in the present century, we +observe that nine out of every ten hunters were ridden in plain snaffle +bridles, and we ask ourselves if our progenitors bred more docile +beasts, or were these drinkers of port wine, bolder, stronger, and +better horsemen than their descendants. Without entering on the vexed +question of comparative merit in hounds, hunters, pace, country and +sport, at an interval of more than two generations, I think I can find a +reason, and it seems to me simply this. + +Most of these hunting pictures are representations of the chase in our +midland counties, notably Leicestershire and Northamptonshire, then only +partially inclosed; boundary fences of large properties were few and far +between, straggling also, and ill-made-up, the high thorn hedges that +now call forth so much bold and so much timid riding, either did not +exist, or were of such tender growth as required protection by a low +rail on each side, and a sportsman, with flying coat-tails, doubling +these obstacles neatly, at his own pace, forms a favourite subject for +the artist of the time. Twenty or thirty horsemen, at most, comprised +the field; in such an expanse of free country there must have been +plenty of room to ride, and we all know how soon a horse becomes +amenable to control on a moor or an open down. The surface too was +undrained, and a few furlongs bring the hardest puller to reason when he +goes in over his fetlocks every stride. Hand and heel are the two great +auxiliaries of the equestrian, but our grandfathers, I imagine, made +less use of the bridle than the spur. + +With increased facilities for locomotion, in the improvement of roads +and coaches, hunting, always the English gentleman's favourite pastime, +became a fashion for every one who could afford to keep a horse, and men +thought little of twelve hours spent in the mail on a dark winter's +night in order to meet hounds next day. The numbers attending a +favourite fixture began to multiply, second horses were introduced, so +that long before the use of railways scarlet coats mustered by tens as +to-day by fifties, and the _crowd_, as it is called, became a recognized +impediment to the enjoyments of the day. + +Meantime fences were growing in height and thickness; an improved system +of farming subdivided the fields and partitioned them off for pastoral +or agricultural purposes; the hunter was called upon to collect himself, +and jump at short notice, with a frequency that roused his mettle to the +utmost, and this too in a rush of his fellow-creatures, urging, +jostling, crossing him in the first five minutes at every turn. + +Under such conditions it became indispensable to have him in perfect +control, and that excellent invention, the double-bridle, came into +general use. + +I suppose I need hardly explain to my reader that it loses none of +the advantages belonging to the snaffle, while it gains in the powerful +leverage of the curb a restraint few horses are resolute enough to defy. +In skilful hands, varying, yet harmonising, the manipulation of both, as +a musician plays treble and bass on the pianoforte, it would seem to +connect the rider's thought with the horse's movement, as if an electric +chain passed through wrist, and finger, and mouth, from the head of the +one to the heart of the other. The bearing and touch of this instrument +can be so varied as to admit of a continual change in the degree of +liberty and control, of that give-and-take which is the whole secret of +comfortable progression. While the bridoon or snaffle-rein is tightened, +the horse may stretch his neck to the utmost, without losing that +confidence in the moral support of his rider's hand which is so +encouraging to him if unaccompanied by pain. When the curb is brought +into play, he bends his neck at its pressure to a position that brings +his hind-legs under his own body and his rider's weight, from which +collected form alone can his greatest efforts be made. Have your +curb-bit sufficiently powerful, if not high in the _port_, at any rate +long in the _cheek_, your bridoon as _thick_ as your saddler can be +induced to send it. With the first you bring a horse's head into the +right place, with the second, if smooth and _very_ thick, you keep it +there, in perfect comfort to the animal, and consequently to yourself. A +thin bridoon, and I have seen them mere wires, only cuts, chafes, and +irritates, causing more pain and consequently more resistance, than the +curb itself. I have already mentioned the fineness of Mr. Lovell's hand +(alas! that he has but one), and I was induced by this gentleman to try +a plan of his own invention, which, with his delicate manipulation, he +found to be a success. Instead of the usual bridoon, he rode with a +double strap of leather, exactly the width of a bridle-rein, and twice +its thickness, resting where the snaffle ordinarily lies, on the horse's +tongue and bars. With his touch it answered admirably, with mine, +perhaps because I used the leather more roughly than the metal, it +seemed the severer of the two. But a badly-broken horse, and half the +hunters we ride have scarcely been taught their alphabet, will perhaps +try to avoid the restraint of a curb by throwing his head up at the +critical moment when you want to steady him for a difficulty. If you +have a firm seat, perfectly independent of the bridle,--and do not be +too sure of this, until you have tried the experiment of sitting a leap +with nothing to hold on by--you may call in the assistance of the +running-martingale, slipping your curb-rein, which should be made to +unbuckle, through its rings. Your _curb_, I repeat, contrary to the +usual practice, and _not your snaffle_. I will soon explain why. + +The horse has so docile a nature, that he would always rather do right +than wrong, if he can only be taught to distinguish one from the other; +therefore, have all your restrictive power on the same engine. Directly +he gives to your hand, by affording him more liberty you show him that +he has met your wishes, and done what you asked. If you put the +martingale on your bridoon rein you can no longer indicate approval. To +avoid its control he must lean on the discomfort of his curb, and it +puzzles no less than it discourages him, to find that every effort to +please you is met, one way or the other, by restraint. So much for his +convenience; now for your own. I will suppose you are using the common +hunting martingale, attached to the breast-plate of your saddle, not to +its girths. Be careful that the rings are too small to slip over those +of the curb-bit; you will be in an awkward predicament if, after rising +at a fence, your horse in the moment that he tries to extend himself +finds his nose tied down to his knees. + +Neither must you shorten it too much at first; rather accustom your +pupil gradually to its restraint, and remember that all horses are not +shaped alike; some are so formed that they must needs carry their heads +higher, and, as you choose to think, in a worse place than others. +Tuition in all its branches cannot be too gradual, and nature, whether +of man or beast, is less easily driven than led. The first consideration +in riding is, no doubt, to make our horses do what we desire; but when +this elementary object has been gained, it is of great importance to our +comfort that they should accept our wishes as their own, persuaded that +they exert themselves voluntarily in the service of their riders. For +this it is essential to use such a bridle as they do not fear to meet, +yet feel unwilling to disobey. Many high-couraged horses, with sensitive +mouths, no uncommon combination, and often united to those propelling +powers in hocks and quarters that are so valuable to a hunter, while +they scorn restraint by the mild influence of the snaffle, fight +tumultuously against the galling restriction of a curb. For these the +scion of a noble family, that has produced many fine riders, invented a +bridle, combining, as its enemies declare, the defects of both, to which +he has given his name. + +In England there seems a very general prejudice against the Pelham, +whereas in Ireland we see it in constant use. Like other bridles of a +peculiar nature it is adapted for peculiar horses; and I have myself had +three or four excellent hunters that would not be persuaded to go +comfortably in anything else. + +I need hardly explain the construction of a Pelham. It consists of a +single bit, smooth and jointed, like a common snaffle, but prolonged +from the rings on either side to a cheek, having a second rein attached, +which acts, by means of a curb-chain round the lower jaw, in the same +manner, though to a modified extent, as the curb-rein of the usual +hunting double-bridle, to which it bears an outward resemblance, and of +which it seems a mild and feeble imitation. I have never to this day +made out whether or not a keen young sportsman was amusing himself at my +expense, when, looking at my horse's head thus equipped, he asked the +simple question: "Do you find it a good plan to have your snaffle and +curb all in one?" I _did_ find it a good plan with that particular +horse, and at the risk of appearing egotistical I will explain why, by +narrating the circumstances under which I first discovered his merits, +illustrating as they do the special advantages of this unpopular +implement. + +The animal in question, thoroughbred, and amongst hunters exceedingly +speedy, was unused to jumping when I purchased him, and from his +unaffected delight in their society, I imagine had never seen hounds. He +was active, however, high-couraged, and only too willing to be in front; +but with a nervous, excitable temperament, and every inclination to pull +hard, he had also a highly sensitive mouth. The double-bridle in which +he began his experiences annoyed him sadly; he bounced, fretted, made +himself thoroughly disagreeable, and our first day was a pleasure to +neither of us. Next time I bethought me of putting on a Pelham, and the +effect of its greater liberty seemed so satisfactory that to enhance it, +I took the curb-chain off altogether. I was in the act of pocketing the +links, when a straight-necked fox broke covert, pointing for a beautiful +grass country, and the hounds came pouring out with a burning scent, not +five hundred yards from his brush. I remounted pretty quick, but my +thoroughbred one--in racing language, "a good beginner"--was quicker +yet, and my feet were hardly in the stirrups, ere he had settled to his +stride, and was flying along in rather too close proximity to the pack. +Happily, there was plenty of room, and the hounds ran unusually hard, +for my horse fairly broke away with me in the first field, and although +he allowed me by main force to steady him a little at his fences, during +ten minutes at least I know who was _not_ master! He calmed, however, +before the end of the burst, which was a very brilliant gallop, over a +practicable country, and when I sent him home at two o'clock, I felt +satisfied I had a game, good horse, that would soon make a capital +hunter. + +Now I am persuaded our timely _escapade_ was of the utmost service. It +gave him confidence in his rider's hand; which, with this light Pelham +bridle he found could inflict on him no pain, and only directed him the +way he delighted to go. On his next appearance in the hunting-field, he +was not afraid to submit to a little more restraint, and so by degrees, +though I am bound to admit, the process took more than one season, he +became a steady, temperate conveyance, answering the powerful +conventional double-bridle with no less docility than the most sedate of +his stable companions. We have seen a great deal of fun together since, +but never such a game of romps as our first! + +Why are so many brilliant horses difficult to ride? It ought not to be +so. The truest shape entails the truest balance, consequently the +smoothest paces and the best mouth. The fault is neither of form nor +temper, but originates, if truth must be told, in the prejudices of the +breaker, who will not vary his system to meet the requirements of +different pupils. The best hunters have necessarily great power behind +the saddle, causing them to move with their hind-legs so well under +them, that they will not, and indeed cannot lean on the rider's hand. +This the breaker calls "facing their bit," and the shyer they seem of +that instrument, the harder he pulls. Up go their heads to avoid the +pain, till that effort of self-defence becomes a habit, and it takes +weeks of patience and fine horsemanship to undo the effects of +unnecessary ill-usage for an hour. + +Eastern horses, being broke from the first in the severest possible +bits, all acquire this trick of throwing their noses in the air; but as +they have never learned to pull, for the Oriental prides himself on +riding with a "finger," you need only give them an easy bridle and a +martingale to make them go quietly and pleasantly, with heads in the +right place, delighted to find control not necessarily accompanied by +pain. + +And this indeed is the whole object of our numerous inventions. A +light-mouthed horse steered by a good rider, will cross a country safely +and satisfactorily in a Pelham bridle, with a running martingale on the +_lower_ rein. It is only necessary to give him his head at his fences, +that is to say, to let his mouth alone, the moment he leaves the ground. +That the man he carries can hold a horse up, while landing, I believe to +be a fallacy, that he gives him every chance in a difficulty by sitting +well back and not interfering with his efforts to recover himself, I +know to be a fact. The rider cannot keep too quiet till the last moment, +when his own knee touches the ground, then, the sooner he parts company +the better, turning his face towards his horse if possible, so as not to +lose sight of the falling mass, and, above all, holding the bridle in +his hand. + +The last precaution cannot be insisted on too strongly. Not to mention +the solecism of being afoot in boots and breeches during a run, and the +cruel tax we inflict on some brother sportsman, who, being too good a +fellow to leave us in the lurch, rides his own horse furlongs out of his +line to go and catch ours, there is the further consideration of +personal safety to life and limb. That is a very false position in which +a man finds himself, when the animal is on its legs again, who cannot +clear his foot from the stirrup, and has let his horse's head go! + +I believe too that a tenacious grasp on the reins saves many a broken +collar-bone, as it cants the rider's body round in the act of falling, +so that the cushion of muscle behind it, rather than the point of his +shoulder, is the first place to touch the ground; and no one who has +ever been "pitched into" by a bigger boy at school can have forgotten +that this part of the body takes punishment with the greatest impunity. +But we are wandering from our subject. To hold on like grim death when +down, seems an accomplishment little akin to the contents of a chapter +professing to deal with the skilful use of the bridle. + +The horse, except in peculiar cases, such as a stab with a sharp +instrument, shrinks like other animals from pain. If he cannot avoid it +in one way he will in another. When suffering under the pressure of his +bit, he endeavours to escape the annoyance, according to the shape and +setting on of his neck and shoulders, either by throwing his head up to +the level of a rider's eyes, or dashing it down between his own knees. +The latter is by far the most pernicious manoeuvre of the two, and to +counteract it has been constructed the instrument we call "a gag." + +This is neither more nor less than another snaffle bit of which the +head-stall and rein, instead of being separately attached to the rings, +are in one piece running through a swivel, so that a leverage is +obtained on the side of the mouth of such power as forces the horse's +head upwards to its proper level. In a gag and snaffle no horse can +continue "boring," as it is termed against his rider's hand; in a gag +and curb he is indeed a hard puller who will attempt to run away. + +But with this bridle, adieu to all those delicacies of fingering which +form the great charm of horsemanship, and are indeed the master touches +of the art. A gag cannot be drawn gently through the mouth with hands +parted and lowered on each side so as to "turn and wind a fiery +Pegasus," nor is the bull-headed beast that requires it one on which, +without long and patient tuition, you may hope to "witch the world with +noble horsemanship." It is at best but a schoolmaster, and like the +curbless Pelham in which my horse ran away with me, only a step in the +right direction towards such willing obedience as we require. Something +has been gained when our horse learns we have power to control him; much +when he finds that power exerted for his own advantage. + +I would ride mine in a chain-cable if by no other means I could make him +understand that he must submit to my will, hoping always eventually to +substitute for it a silken thread. + +All bridles, by whatever names they may be called, are but the +contrivances of a government that depends for authority on concealment +of its weakness. Hard hands will inevitably make hard pullers, but to +the animal intellect a force still untested is a force not lightly to be +defied. The loose rein argues confidence, and even the brute understands +that confidence is an attribute of power. + +Change your bridle over and over again, till you find one that suits +your hand, rather, I should say, that suits your horse's mouth. Do not, +however, be too well satisfied with a first essay. He may go +delightfully to-day in a bit that he will learn how to counteract by +to-morrow. Nevertheless, a long step has been made in the right +direction when he has carried you pleasantly if only for an hour. Should +that period have been passed in following hounds, it is worth a whole +week's education under less exciting conditions. A horse becomes best +acquainted with his rider in those situations that call forth most care +and circumspection from both. + +Broken ground, fords, morasses, dark nights, all tend to mutual good +understanding, but forty minutes over an inclosed country establishes +the partnership of man and beast on such relations of confidence as much +subsequent indiscretion fails to efface. The same excitement that rouses +his courage seems to sharpen his faculties and clear his brain. It is +wonderful how soon he begins to understand your meaning as conveyed +literally from "hand to mouth," how cautiously he picks his steps +amongst stubs or rabbit-holes, when the loosened rein warns him he must +look out for himself, how boldly he quickens his stride and collects his +energies for the fence he is approaching, when he feels grip and grasp +tighten on back and bridle, conscious that you mean to "catch hold of +his head and send him at it!" while loving you all the better for this +energy of yours that stimulates his own. + +And now we come to a question admitting of no little discussion, +inasmuch as those practitioners differ widely who are best capable of +forming an opinion. The advocates of the loose rein, who though +outnumbered at the covert-side, are not always in a minority when the +hounds run, maintain that a hunter never acquits himself so well as +while let completely alone; their adversaries, on the other hand, +protest that the first principle of equitation, is to keep fast hold of +your horse's head at all times and under all circumstances. "You pull +him into his fences," argues Finger. "_You_ will never pull him out of +them," answers Fist. "Get into a bucket and try to lift yourself by the +handles!" rejoins Finger, quoting from an apposite illustration of +Colonel Greenwood's, as accomplished a horseman as his brother, also a +colonel, whose fine handling I have already mentioned. "A horse isn't a +bucket," returns Fist, triumphantly; "why, directly you let his head go +does he stop in a race, refuse a brook, or stumble when tired on the +road?" + +It is a thousand pities that he cannot tell us which of the two systems +he prefers himself. We may argue from theory, but can only judge by +practice; and must draw our inferences rather from personal experience +than the subtlest reasoning of the schools. + +Now if all horses were broke by such masters of the art as General +Lawrenson and Mr. Mackenzie Greaves, riders who combine the strength and +freedom of the hunting field with the scientific exercise of hands and +limbs, as taught in the _haute ecole_, so obedient would they become to +our gestures, nay, to the inflection of our bodies, that they might be +trusted over the strongest lordship in Leicestershire with their heads +quite loose, or, for that matter, with no bridle at all. But equine +education is usually conducted on a very different system to that of +Monsieur Baucher, or either of the above-named gentlemen. From colthood +horses have been taught to understand, paradoxically enough, that a dead +pull against the jaws means, "Go on, and be hanged to you, till I alter +the pressure as a hint for you to stop." + +It certainly seems common sense, that when we tug at a horse's bridle he +should oblige us by coming to a halt, yet, in his fast paces, we find +the pull produces a precisely contrary effect; and for this habit, which +during the process of breaking has become a second nature, we must make +strong allowances, particularly in the hurry and excitement of crossing +a country after a pack of hounds. + +It has happened to most of us, no doubt, at some period to have owned a +favourite, whose mouth was so fine, temper so perfect, courage so +reliable, and who had so learned to accommodate pace and action to our +lightest indications, that when thus mounted we felt we could go +tit-tupping over a country with slackened rein and toe in stirrup, as if +cantering in the Park. As we near our fence, a little more forbidding, +perhaps, than common, every stride seems timed like clockwork, and, +unwilling to interfere with such perfect mechanism, we drop our hand, +trusting wholly in the honour of our horse. At the very last stride the +traitor refuses, and whisks round. "_Et tu brute!_" we exclaim--"Are +_you_ also a brute?"--and catching him vigorously by the head, we ram +him again at the obstacle to fly over it like a bird. Early associations +had prevailed, and our stanch friend disappointed us, not from +cowardice, temper, nor incapacity, but only from the influence of an +education based on principles contrary to common sense. + +The great art of horsemanship, then, is to find out what the animal +requires of us, and to meet its wishes, even its prejudices, half-way. +Cool with the rash, and daring with the cautious, it is wise to retain +the semblance, at least, of a self-possession superior to casualties, +and equal to any emergency, from a refusal to a fall. Though "give and +take" is the very first principle of handling, too sudden a variation of +pressure has a tendency to confuse and flurry a hunter, whether in the +gallop or when collecting itself for the leap. If you have been holding +a horse hard by the head, to let him go in the last stride is very apt +to make him run into his fence; while, if you have been riding with a +light hand and loosened rein, a "chuck under the chin" at an inopportune +moment distracts his attention, and causes him to drop short. "How did +you get your fall?" is a common question in the hunting-field. If the +partner at one end of the bridle could speak, how often would he answer, +"Through bad riding;" when the partner at the other dishonestly replies, +"The brute didn't jump high enough, or far enough, that was all." It is +well for the most brilliant reputations that the noble animal is +generous as he is brave, and silent as he is wise. + +I have already observed there are many more kinds of bridles than those +just mentioned. Major Dwyer's, notably, of which the principle is an +exact fitting of bridoon and curb-bits to the horse's mouth, seems to +give general satisfaction; and Lord Gardner, whose opinion none are +likely to dispute, stamps it with his approval. I confess, however, to a +preference for the old-fashioned double-bridles, such as are called +respectively the Dunchurch, Nos. 1 and 2, being persuaded that these +will meet the requirements of nine horses out of ten that have any +business in the hunting-field. The first, very large, powerful, and of +stronger leverage than the second, should be used with discretion, but, +in good hands, is an instrument against which the most resolute puller, +if he insists on fighting with it, must contend in vain. Thus tackled, +and ridden by such a horseman as Mr. Angerstein, for instance, of +Weeting, in Norfolk, I do not believe there are half-a-dozen hunters in +England that could get the mastery. Whilst living in Northamptonshire I +remember he owned a determined runaway, not inappropriately called "Hard +Bargain," that in this bridle he could turn and twist like a pony. I +have no doubt he has not forgotten the horse, nor a capital run from +Misterton, in which, with his usual kindness, he lent him thus bridled +to a friend. + +I have seen horses go very pleasantly in what I believe is called the +half-moon bit, of which the bridoon, having no joint, is shaped so as to +take the curve of the animal's mouth. I have never tried one, but the +idea seems good, as based on the principle of comfort to the horse. When +we can arrive at that essential, combined with power to the rider, we +may congratulate ourselves on possessing the right bridle at last, and +need have no scruple in putting the animal to its best pace, confident +we can stop it at will. + +We should never forget that the faster hounds run, the more desirable +is it to have perfect control of our conveyance; and that a hunter of +very moderate speed, easy to turn, and quick on its legs, will cross a +country with more expedition than a race-horse that requires half a +field to "go about;" and that we dare not extend lest, "with too much +way on," he should get completely out of our hand. Once past the gap you +fancied, you will never find a place in the fence you like so well +again. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +THE ABUSE OF THE SPUR. + + + "You may ride us, + With one soft kiss, a thousand furlongs, ere + With spurs we heat an acre." + +Says Hermione, and indeed that gentle lady's illustration equally +applies to an inferior order of beings, from which also man derives much +comfort and delight. It will admit of discussion whether the "armed +heel," with all its terrors, has not, on the race-course at least, lost +more triumphs than it has won. + +I have been told that Fordham, who seems to be first past the judges' +chair oftener than any jockey of the day, wholly repudiates "the +tormentors," arguing that they only make a horse shorten his stride, and +"shut up," to use an expressive term, instead of struggling gallantly +home. Judging by analogy, it is easy to conceive that such may be the +case. The tendency of the human frame seems certainly to contract rather +than expand its muscles, with instinctive repugnance at the stab of a +sharp instrument, or even the puncture of a thorn. It is not while +receiving punishment but administering it that the prize-fighter opens +his shoulders and lets out. There is no doubt that many horses, +thoroughbred ones especially, will stop suddenly, even in their gallop, +and resent by kicking an indiscreet application of the spurs. A +determined rider who keeps them screwed in the animal's flanks +eventually gains the victory. But such triumphs of severity and main +force are the last resource of an authority that ought never to be +disputed, as springing less from fear than confidence and good-will. + +It cannot be denied that there are many fools in the world, yet, +regarding matters of opinion, the majority are generally right. A +top-boot has an unfinished look without its appendage of shining steel; +and, although some sportmen assure us they dispense with rowels, it is +rare to find one so indifferent to appearances as not to wear spurs. +There must be some good reason for this general adoption of an +instrument that, from the days of chivalry, has been the very stamp and +badge of a superiority which the man on horseback assumes over the man +on foot. Let us weigh the arguments for and against this emblem of +knighthood before we decide. In the riding-school, and particularly for +military purposes, when the dragoon's right hand is required for his +weapon, these aids, as they are called, seem to enhance that pressure of +the leg which acts on the horse's quarters, as the rein on his forehand, +bringing his whole body into the required position. Perhaps if the boot +were totally unarmed much time might be lost in making his pupil +understand the horseman's wishes, but any one who has ridden a perfectly +trained charger knows how much more accurately it answers to the leg +than the heel, and how awkwardly a horse acquits himself that has been +broke in very sharp spurs; every touch causing it to wince and swerve +too far in the required direction, glancing off at a tangent, like a +boat that is over ready in answering her helm. Patience and a light +switch, I believe, would fulfil all the purposes of the spur, even in +the _manege_; but delay is doubtless a drawback, and there are reasons +for going the shortest way on occasion, even if it be not the smoothest +and the best. + +It is quite unnecessary, however, and even prejudicial, to have the +rowels long and sharp. Nothing impedes tuition like fear; and fear in +the animal creation is the offspring of pain. + +Granted, then, that the spur may be applied advantageously in the +school, let us see how far it is useful on the road or in the +hunting-field. + +We will start by supposing that you do not possess a really perfect +hack; that desirable animal must, doubtless, exist somewhere, but, like +Pegasus, is more often talked of than seen. Nevertheless, the roadster +that carries you to business or pleasure is a sound, active, useful +beast, with safe, quick action, good shoulders, of course, and a willing +disposition, particularly when turned towards home. How often in a week +do you touch it with the spurs? Once, perhaps, by some bridle-gate, +craftily hung at precisely the angle which prevents your reaching its +latch or hasp. And what is the result of this little display of +vexation? Your hack gets flurried, sticks his nose in the air, refuses +to back, and compels you at last to open the gate with your wrong hand, +rubbing your knee against the post as he pushes through in unseemly +haste, for fear of another prod. When late for dinner, or hurrying home +to outstrip the coming shower, you may fondly imagine that but for "the +persuaders" you would have been drenched to the skin; and, relating your +adventures at the fire-side, will probably declare that "you stuck the +spurs into him the last mile, and came along as hard as he could drive." +But, if you were to visit him in the stable, you would probably find his +flanks untouched, and would, I am sure, be pleased rather than +disappointed at the discovery. Happily, not one man in ten knows _how_ +to spur a horse, and the tenth is often the most unwilling to administer +so severe a punishment. + +Ladies, however, are not so merciful. Perhaps because they have but one, +they use this stimulant liberally, and without compunction. From their +seat, and shortness of stirrup, every kick tells home. Concealed under a +riding-habit, these vigorous applications are unsuspected by lookers-on; +and the unwary wonder why, in the streets of London or the Park, a +ladies' horse always appears to go in a lighter and livelier form than +that of her male companion. "It's a woman's hand," says the admiring +pedestrian. "Not a bit of it," answers the cynic who knows; "it's a +woman's heel." + +But, however sparing you may be of the spurs in lane or bridle-road, +you are tempted to ply them far too freely in the anxiety and excitement +of the hunting-field. Have you ever noticed the appearance of a white +horse at the conclusion of some merry gallop over a strongly fenced +country? The pure conspicuous colour tells sad tales, and the smooth, +thin-skinned flanks are too often stained and plastered with red. Many +bad horsemen spur their horses without meaning it; many worse, mean to +spur their horses at every fence, and _do_. + +A Leicestershire notability, of the last generation once dubbed a rival +with the expressive title of "a hard funker;" and the term, so happily +applied, fully rendered what he meant. Of all riders "the hard funker" +is the most unmerciful to his beast; at every turn he uses his spurs +cruelly, not because he is _hard_, but because he _funks_. Let us watch +him crossing a country, observing his style as a warning rather than an +example. + +Hesitation and hurry are his principal faults, practised, with much +impartiality, in alternate extremes. Though half-way across a field, he +is still undecided where to get out. This vacillation communicates +itself in electric sympathy to his horse, and both go wavering down to +their fence, without the slightest idea what they mean to do when they +arrive. Some ten strides off the rider makes up his mind, selecting, +probably, an extremely awkward place, for no courage is so desperate as +that which is founded on fear. Want of determination is now supplemented +by excessive haste and, with incessant application of the spurs, his +poor horse is hurried wildly at the leap. That it gets over without +falling, as happens oftener than might be supposed, seems due to +activity in the animal rather than sagacity in the rider, and a strong +instinct of self-preservation in both; but such a process, repeated +again and again during a gallop, even of twenty minutes, tells fearfully +on wind and muscle, nor have many hunters sufficient powers of endurance +to carry these exacting performers through a run. + +Still the "h. f." would be nothing without his spurs, and I grant that +to him these instruments are indispensable, if he is to get from one +field to another; but of what use are they to such men as Mr. Gilmour, +Captain Coventry, Sir Frederic Johnston, Captain Boyce, Mr. Hugh +Lowther, and a host more that I could name, who seem to glide over +Leicestershire, and other strongly-fenced countries, as a bird glides +through the air. Day after day, unless accidentally scored in a fall, +you may look in vain for a spur-mark on their horses sides. Shoulders +and quarters, indeed, are reddened by gashes from a hundred thorns; but +the virgin spot, a handsbreadth behind the girths, is pure and stainless +still. Yet not one of the gentlemen I have named will ride without the +instrument he uses so rarely, if at all; and they must cherish, +therefore, some belief in its virtue, when called into play, strong +enough to counterbalance its indisputable disadvantages--notably, the +stabbing of a hunter's side, when its rider's foot is turned outwards by +a stake or grower, and the tearing of its back or quarters in the +struggle and confusion of a fall. There is one excellent reason that, +perhaps, I may have overlooked. It is tiresome to answer the same +question over and over again, and in a field of 200 sportsmen you are +sure to be asked almost as many times, "Why don't you wear spurs?" if +you set appearances at defiance by coming into the hunting-field without +them. + +In my personal recollection I can only call to mind one man who +systematically abjured so essential a finish to the horseman's dress and +equipment. This was Mr. Tomline of Leigh Lodge, a Leicestershire farmer +and horse-dealer, well-known some thirty years ago as one of the finest +riders and straightest goers that ever got into a saddle. His costume, +indeed, was not of so careful a nature that want of completeness in any +one particular could spoil the general effect. He _always_ hunted in a +rusty, worn pilot-jacket, drab breeches with strings untied, +brown-topped boots, and a large ill-fitting hat, carrying in his hand a +ground-ash plant, totally useless for opening a gate if he did not +happen to jump it. Yet thus accoutred, and generally on a young one, so +long as his horse's condition lasted, he was sure to be in front, and, +when the fences were rougher than common, with but two or three +companions at most. + +I have not yet forgotten the style in which I once saw him coax a +four-year-old to jump a "bottom" under Launde, fortified by a high post +and rail--down-hill--a bad take off--and almost a ravine on the far +side! With his powerful grip and exquisite handling, he seemed to +persuade the pupil that it was as willing as the master. + +My own spurs were four inches long, and I was riding the best hunter in +my stable, but I don't think I would have had the same place for fifty +pounds! + +A paradox, like an Irishman's bull, will sometimes convey our meaning +more impressively than a logical statement. It seems paradoxical, yet I +believe it is sound sense to say that no man should arm his heels with +spurs unless he is so good a rider as to be sure they shall not touch +his horse. To punish him with them involuntarily is, of course, like any +other blunder totally inadmissible, but when applied with intention, +they should be used sparingly and only as a last resource. That there +_are_ occasions on which they rouse a horse's energies for a momentary +effort, I am disposed to admit less from my own experience than the +opinion of those for whose practical knowledge in all such matters I +have the greatest respect. Both the Messrs. Coventry, in common with +other first-rate steeple-chase riders, advocate their use on rare +occasions and under peculiar circumstances. Poor Jem Mason never went +hunting without them, and would not, I think, have hesitated to apply +them pretty freely if required, but then these could all spur their +horses in the right place, leaning back the while and altering in no way +the force and bearing of hand or seat. Most men, on the contrary, stoop +forward and let their horses' heads go when engaged in this method of +compulsion, and even if their heels _do_ reach the mark, by no means a +certainty, gain but little with the rowels compared to all they lose +with the reins. + +There is no fault in a hunter so annoying to a man whose heart is in +the sport as a tendency _to refuse_. It utterly defeats the timid and +damps the courage of the bold, while even to him who _rides_ that he may +hunt rather than _hunts_ that he may _ride_, it is intensely provoking, +as he is apt to lose by it that start which is so invaluable in a quick +thing, and, when a large field are all struggling for the same object, +so difficult to regain. This perversity of disposition too, is very apt +to be displayed at some fence that will not admit of half-measures, such +as a rail low enough to jump, but too strong to break, or a ditch so +wide and deep that it must not be attempted as a standing leap. In these +cases a vigorous dig with the spurs at the last moment will sometimes +have an excellent effect. But it must not be trusted as an unfailing +remedy. Nearly as many hunters will resent so broad a hint, by stopping +short, and turning restive, as will spring generously forward, and make +a sudden effort in answer to the appeal. For this, as for every other +requirement of equitation, much depends on an insight into his +character, whom an enthusiastic friend of mine designates "the bolder +and wiser animal of the two." + +Few men go out hunting with the expectation of encountering more than +one or two falls in the best of runs, although the score sometimes +increases very rapidly, when a good and gallant horse is getting tired +towards the finish. Twenty "croppers" in a season, if he is +well-mounted, seems a high average for the most determined of bruisers, +but a man, whom circumstances impel to ride whatever he can lay hands +on, must take into consideration how he can best rise from the ground +unhurt with no less forethought than he asks his way to the meet or +inquires into the condition of his mount. To such a bold rider the spur +may seem an indispensable article, but he must remember that even if its +application should save him on occasion, which I am not altogether +prepared to admit, the appendage itself is most inconvenient when down. +I cannot remember a single instance of a man's foot remaining fixed in +the stirrup who was riding without spurs. I do not mean to say such a +catastrophe is impossible, but I have good reason to know that the +buckle on the instep, which when brightly polished imparts such a finish +to the lustrous wrinkles of a well-made boot, is extremely apt to catch +in the angle of the stirrup iron, and hold us fast at the very moment +when it is most important to our safety we should be free. + +I have headed this chapter "The Abuse of the Spur," because I hold +that implement of horsemanship to be in general most unmercifully +abused, so much so that I believe it would be far better for the +majority of horses, and riders too, if it had never come into vogue. The +perfect equestrian may be trusted indeed with rowels sharp and long as +those that jingle at the Mexican's heels on his boundless prairies, but, +as in the days of chivalry, these ornaments should be won by prowess to +be worn with honour; and I firmly believe that nine out of every ten men +who come out hunting would be better and more safely carried if they +left their spurs at home. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +HAND. + + +What is it? Intellect, nerve, sympathy, confidence, skill? None of these +can be said to constitute this quality; rather it is a combination of +all, with something superinduced that can only be called a magnetic +affinity between the aggressive spirit of man and the ductile nature of +the beast. + + "He spurred the old horse, and _he held him tight_, + And leaped him out over the wall," + +says Kingsley, in his stirring ballad of "The Knight's Last Leap at +Alten-ahr;" and Kingsley, an excellent rider himself, thus described +exactly how the animal should have been put at its formidable fence. +Most poets would have let their horse's head go--the loose rein is a +favourite method of making play in literature--and a fatal refusal must +have been the result. The German Knight, however, whose past life seems +to have been no less disreputable than his end was tragic, had not + + "Lived by the saddle for years a score," + +to fail in his horsemanship at the finish, and so, when he came to jump +his last fence, negotiated it with no less skill than daring--grim, +quiet, resolute, strong of seat, and firm of hand. The latter quality +seems, however, much the rarer of the two. For ten men who can stick to +the saddle like Centaurs you will hardly find one gifted with that +nicety of touch which horses so willingly obey, and which, if not +inborn, seems as difficult to acquire by practice as the draughtsman's +eye for outline, or the musician's ear for sound. Attention, reflection, +painstaking, and common sense, can, nevertheless, do much; and, if the +brain will only take the trouble to think, the clumsiest fingers that +ever mismanaged a bridle may be taught in time to humour it like a +silken thread. + +I have been told, though I never tried the experiment, that if you take +bold chanticleer from his perch, and, placing his bill on a table, draw +from it a line of chalk by candle-light, the poor dazed fowl makes no +attempt to stir from this imaginary bondage, persuaded that it is +secured by a cord it has not strength enough to break. We should never +get on horseback without remembering this unaccountable illusion; our +control by means of the bridle is, in reality, little more substantial +than the chalk-line that seems to keep the bird in durance. It should be +our first consideration so to manage the rein we handle as never to give +our horse the opportunity of discovering our weakness and his own +strength. + +How is this to be effected? By letting his head go, and allowing him to +carry us where he will? Certainly not, or we should have no need for the +bridle at all. By pulling at him, then, with main strength, and trying +the muscular power of our arms against that of his shoulders and neck? +Comparing these relative forces again, we are constrained to answer, +Certainly not; the art of control is essentially founded on compromise. +In riding, as in diplomacy, we must always be ready to give an inch that +we may take an ell. The first principle of horsemanship is to make the +animal believe we can rule its wildest mood; the next, to prevent, at +any sacrifice, the submission of this plausible theory to proof. You get +on a horse you have never seen before, improperly bitted, we may fairly +suppose, for few men would think of wasting as many seconds on their +bridle as they devote minutes to their boots and breeches. You infer, +from his wild eye and restless ear that he is "a bit of a romp;" and you +observe, with some concern, that surrounding circumstances, a race, a +review, a coursing-meeting, or a sure find, it matters little which, are +likely to rouse all the tumultuous propensities of his nature. Obviously +it would be exceedingly bad policy to have the slightest +misunderstanding. The stone of Sisyphus gathered impetus less rapidly +than does a horse who is getting the better of his rider; and John +Gilpin was not the first equestrian, by a good many, for whom + + "The trot became a gallop soon, + In spite of curb and rein." + +"I am the owner, I wish I could say the _master_, of the four best +hunters I ever had in my life," wrote one of the finest horsemen in +Europe to a brother proficient in the art; and although so frank an +avowal would have seemed less surprising from an inferior performer, his +friend, who was also in the habit of riding anything, anywhere, and over +everything, doubtless understood perfectly what he meant. + +Now in equitation there can be no divided empire; and the horse will +most assuredly be master if the man is not. In the interests of good +government, then, beware how you let your authority literally slip +through your fingers, for, once lost, it will not easily be regained. + +Draw your reins gently to an equal length, and ascertain the precise +bearing on your horse's mouth that seems, while he is yet in a walk, to +influence his action without offending his sensitiveness. But this +cannot be accomplished with the hands alone; these members, though +supposed to be the prime agents of control, will do little without the +assistance of legs and knees pressing the sides and flanks of the +animal, so as to urge him against the touch of his bit, from which he +will probably show a tendency to recoil, and, as it is roughly called, +"forcing him into his bridle." + +The absence of this leg-power is an incalculable disadvantage to ladies, +and affords the strongest reason, amongst many, why they should be +mounted only on temperate and perfectly broken horses. How much oftener +would they come to grief but that their seat compels them to ride with +such long reins as insure light hands, and that their finer sympathy +seems fully understood and gratefully appreciated by the most +sympathetic of all the brute creation! + +The style adopted by good horsewomen, especially in crossing a country, +has in it much to be admired, something, also, to be deprecated and +deplored. They allow their horses plenty of liberty, and certainly +interfere but little with their heads, even at the greatest emergencies; +but their ideas of pace are unreasonably liberal, and they are too apt +to "chance it" at the fences, encouraging with voice and whip the haste +that in the last few strides it is judicious to repress. It seems to me +they are safer in a "bank-and-ditch" country than amongst the high +strong fences of the grazing districts, where a horse must be roused and +held together that he may jump well up in the air, and extend himself +afterwards, so as to cover the wide "uncertainties" he may find on the +landing side. For a bank he is pretty sure to collect himself without +troubling his rider; and this is, perhaps, why Irishmen, as a general +rule, use such light bridles. + +Now, a woman cannot possibly bring her horse up to a high +staked-and-bound fence, out of deep ground, with the strength and +resolution of a man, whose very grip in the saddle seems to extort from +the animal its utmost energies. Half measures are fatal in a difficulty, +and, as she seems unable to interfere with good effect she is wise to +let it alone. + +We may learn from her, however, one of the most effective secrets of +the whole art, and that is, to ride with long reins. "Always give them +plenty of rope," said poor Jem Mason, when instructing a beginner; and +he certainly practised what he preached. I have seen his hands carried +so high as to be level with his elbows, _but his horse's head was always +in the right place_; and to this must be attributed the fact that, while +he rode to hounds straighter than anybody else, he got comparatively few +falls. A man with long reins not only affords his horse greater liberty +at his fences, but allows him every chance of recovery should he get +into difficulties on landing, the rider not being pulled with a jerk on +the animal's neck and shoulders, so as to throw both of them down, when +they ought to have got off with a scramble. + +Let us return to the horse you have lately mounted, not without certain +misgivings that he may be tempted to insubordination under the +excitement of tumult, rivalry, or noise. When you have discovered the +amount of repression, probably very slight, that he accepts without +resentment, at a walk, increase your pace gradually, still with your +legs keeping him well into his bridle, carrying your hands low down on +his withers, and, if you take my advice, with a rein in each. You will +find this method affords you great control of your horse's head, and +enables you, by drawing the bit through his mouth, to counteract any +arrangement on his part for a dead pull, which could have but one +result. Should you, moreover, find it necessary to jump, you can thus +hold him perfectly straight at his fences, so that he must either +decline altogether or go exactly _where you put him_. Young, headstrong +horses are exceedingly apt to swerve from the place selected for them, +and to rise sideways at some strong bit of timber, or impracticable part +of a bullfinch; and this is a most dangerous experiment, causing the +worst kind of falls to which the sportsman is liable. + +Riding thus two-handed, you will probably find your new acquaintance +"bends" to you in his canter better than in his trot, and if so, you may +safely push him to a gallop, taking great care, however, not to let him +extend himself too much. When he goes on his shoulders, he becomes a +free agent; so long as his haunches are under him, you can keep him, as +it is called, "in your hand." + +There is considerable scope for thought in this exercise of manual +skill, and it is always wise to save labour of body by use of brain. +Take care then, to have your front clear, so that your horse may flatter +himself he is leading his comrades, when he will not give you half so +much trouble to retain him in reasonable bounds. Strategy is here +required no less than tactics, and horsemanship even as regards the +bridle, is quite as much a matter of head as hand. If you are out +hunting, and have got thus far on good terms, you will probably now be +tempted to indulge in a leap. We cannot, unfortunately, select these +obstacles exactly as we wish; it is quite possible your first fence may +be high, strong, and awkward, with every probability of a fall. Take +your horse at it quietly, but resolutely, in a canter, remembering that +the quicker and _shorter_ his strides, while gathering _impetus_, the +greater effort he can make when he makes his spring. Above all, measure +with your eye, and endeavour to show him by the clip of your thighs, and +the sway of your body, exactly where he should take off. On this +important point depends, almost entirely, the success of your leap. Half +a stride means some six or seven feet; to leave the ground that much too +soon adds the width of a fair-sized ditch to his task, and if the sum +total prove too much for him you cannot be surprised at the result. This +is, I think, one of the most important points in horsemanship as applied +to riding across a country. It is a detail in which Lord Wilton +particularly excels, and although so good a huntsman must despise a +compliment to his mere riding, I cannot refrain from mentioning Tom +Firr, as another proficient who possesses this enviable knack in an +extraordinary degree. + +Many of us can remember "Cap" Tomline, a professional "rough rider," +living at or near Billesdon, within the last twenty years, as fine a +horseman as his namesake, whom I have already mentioned, and a somewhat +lighter weight. For one sovereign, "Cap," as we used to call him, was +delighted to ride anybody's horse under any circumstances, over, or into +any kind of fence the owner chose to point out. After going brilliantly +through a run, I have seen him, to my mind most injudiciously, desired +to lark home alongside, while we watched his performance from the road. +He was particularly fond of timber, and notwithstanding that his horse +was usually rash, inexperienced, or bad-tempered, otherwise he would not +have been riding him, I can call to mind very few occasions on which I +saw him down. One unusually open winter, when he hunted five and six +days a week from October to April, he told me he had only fifteen falls, +and that taking the seasons as they came, thirteen was about his +average. Nor was he a very light-weight--spare, lengthy, and muscular, +he turned twelve stone in his hunting clothes, which were by no means of +costly material. Horses rarely refused with him, and though they often +had a scramble for it, as seldom fell, but under his method of riding, +sitting well down in the saddle, with the reins in both hands, they +never took off wrong, and in this lay the great secret of his +superiority. When I knew him he was an exceedingly temperate man; for +many years I believe he drank only water, and he eschewed tobacco in +every form. "The reason you gentlemen have such _bad nerves_," he said +to me, jogging home to Melton one evening in the dusk that always meets +us about Somerby, "is because you smoke so much. It turns your brains to +a kind of vapour!" the inference was startling, I thought, and not +complimentary, but there might be some truth in it nevertheless. + +We have put off a great deal of time at our first fence, let us do it +without a fall, if we can. + +When a hunter's quarters are under him in taking off, he has them ready +to help him over any unforeseen difficulty that may confront him on the +other side. Should there be a bank from which he can get a purchase for +a second effort, he will poise himself on it lightly as a bird, or +perhaps, dropping his hind-legs only, shoot himself well into the next +field, with that delightful elasticity which, met by a corresponding +action of his rider's loins, imparts to the horseman such sensations of +confidence and dexterity as are felt by some buoyant swimmer, wafted +home on the roll of an incoming wave. Strong hocks and thighs, a mutual +predilection for the chase, a bold heart between the saddle-flaps, +another under the waistcoat, and a pair of light hands, form a +combination that few fences after Christmas are strong enough or blind +enough to put down. + +And now please not to forget that soundest of maxims, applicable to all +affairs alike by land or sea--"While she lies her course, let the ship +steer herself." If your horse is going to his own satisfaction, do not +be too particular that he should go entirely to yours. So long as you +can steady him, never mind that he carries his head a little up or a +little down. If he shakes it you know you have got him, and can pull him +off in a hundred yards. Keep your hands quiet and not too low. It is a +well-known fact, of which, however, many draughtsmen seem ignorant, that +the horse in action never puts his fore-feet beyond his nose. You need +only watch the finish of a race to be satisfied of this, and indeed the +Derby winner in his supreme effort is almost as straight as an +old-fashioned frigate, from stem to stern, while a line dropped +perpendicularly from his muzzle would exactly touch the tips of his +toes. Now, if your hands are on each side of your horse's withers, you +make him bend his neck so much as to contract his stride within +three-quarter speed, whereas when you carry them about the level of your +own hips, and nearly as far back, he has enough freedom of head to +extend himself without getting beyond your control, and room besides to +look about him, of which be sure he will avail himself for your mutual +advantage. + +I have ridden hunters that obviously found great pleasure in watching +hounds, and, except to measure their fences, would never take their eyes +off the pack from field to field, so long as we could keep it in sight. +These animals too, were, invariably fine jumpers, free, generous, +light-hearted, and as wise as they were bold. + +I heard a very superior performer once remark that he not only rode +every horse differently, but he rode the same horse differently at every +fence. + +All I can say is, he used to ride them all in the same place, well up +with the hounds, but I think I understand what he meant. He had his +system of course, like every other master of the art, but it admitted of +endless variations according to circumstances and the exigencies of the +case. No man, I conclude, rides so fast at a wall as a brook, though he +takes equal pains with his handling in both cases, if in a different +way, nor would he deny a half-tired animal that support, amounting even +to a dead pull, which might cause a hunter fresh out of his stable to +imagine his utmost exertions were required forthwith. Nevertheless, +whether "lobbing along" through deep ground at the punishing period, +when we wish our fun was over, or fingering a rash one delicately for +his first fence, a stile, we will say, downhill with a bad take-off, +when we could almost wish it had not begun, we equally require such a +combination of skill, science, and sagacity, or rather common-sense, as +goes by the name of "hand." When the player possesses this quality in +perfection it is wonderful how much can be done with the instrument of +which he holds the strings. I remember seeing the Reverend John Bower, +an extraordinarily fine rider of the last generation, hand his horse +over an ugly iron-bound stile, on to some stepping-stones, with a drop +of six or seven feet, into a Leicestershire lane, as calmly as if the +animal had been a lady whom he was taking out for a walk. He pulled it +back into a trot, sitting very close and quiet, with his hand raised two +or three inches above the withers, and I can still recall, as if I had +seen it yesterday, the curve of neck and quarters, as, gently mouthing +the bit, that well-broken hunter poised lightly for its spring, and +landing in the same collected form, picked its way daintily, step by +step, down the declivity, like a cat. There was a large field out, but +though Leicestershire then, as now, had no lack of bold and jealous +riders, who could use heads, hands, and beyond all, their heels, nobody +followed him, and I think the attempt was better left alone. + +Another clergyman of our own day, whose name I forbear mentioning, +because I think he would dislike it for professional reasons, has the +finest bridle-hand of any one I know. "_You good man_," I once heard a +foreigner observe to this gentleman, in allusion to his bold style of +riding; "_it no matter if you break your neck!_" And although I cannot +look on the loss of such valuable lives from the same point of view as +this Continental moralist, I may be permitted to regret the present +scarcity of clergymen in the hunting-field. It redounds greatly to their +credit, for we know how many of them deny themselves a harmless pleasure +rather than offend "the weaker brethren," but what a dog in the manger +must the weaker brother be! + +I have never heard that these "hunting parsons," as they are called, +neglect the smallest detail of duty to indulge in their favourite sport, +but when they _do_ come out you may be sure to see them in the front +rank. Can it be that the weaker brother is jealous of his pastor's +superiority in the saddle? I hope not. At any rate it seems unfair to +cavil at the enjoyment by another of the pursuit we affect ourselves. +Let us show more even-handed justice, if not more charity, and endeavour +at least to follow the good man's example in the parish, though we are +afraid to ride his line across the fields. + +It would be endless to enter on all the different styles of +horsemanship in which fine hands are of the utmost utility. On the +race-course, for instance, it seems to an outsider that the whole +performance of the jockey is merely a dead pull from end to end. But +only watch the lightest urchin that is flung on a two-year-old to +scramble home five furlongs as fast as ever he can come; you will soon +be satisfied that even in these tumultuous flights there is room for the +display of judgment, patience, though briefly tried, and manual skill. +The same art is exercised on the light smooth snaffle, held in tenacious +grasp, that causes the heavily-bitted charger to dance and "passage" in +the school. It differs only in direction and degree. As much dexterity +is required to prevent some playful flyer recently put in training from +breaking out in a game of romps, when he ought to be minding his +business in "the string" as to call forth the well-drilled efforts of a +war-horse, answering wrist and leg with disciplined activity, ready to +"rein back," "pass," "wheel,"-- + + "And high curvet that not in vain, + The sword-sway may descend amain + On foeman's casque below." + +Chifney, the great jockey of his day, wrote an elaborate treatise on +handling, laying down the somewhat untenable position, that even a +racehorse should be held as if with a silken thread. + +I have noticed, too, that our best steeplechase riders have particularly +fine hands when crossing a country with hounds; nor does their +professional practice seem to make them over-hasty at their fences, when +there is time to do these with deliberation. I imagine that to ride a +steeplechase well, over a strong line, is the highest possible test of +what we may call "all-round" horsemanship. My own experience in the silk +jacket has been of the slightest; and I confess that, like Falstaff with +his reasons, I never fancied being rattled quite so fast at my fences +"on compulsion." + +One of the finest pieces of riding I ever witnessed was in a +steeplechase held at Melton, as long ago as the year 1864, when, +happening to stand near the brook, _eighteen feet of water_, I observed +my friend Captain Coventry come down at it. Choosing sound ground and a +clear place, for it was already beginning to fill with numerous +competitors, he set his horse going, at about a hundred yards from the +brink; in the most masterly manner, increasing the pace resolutely but +gradually, so as not to flurry or cause the animal to change his leg, +nearly to full speed before he took off. I could not have believed it +possible to make a horse go so fast in so collected a form; but with the +rider's strength in the saddle, and perfectly skilful hands, he +accomplished the feat, and got well over, I need hardly say, in his +stride. + +But, although a fine "bridle-hand," as it is called, proves of such +advantage to the horseman in the hurry-skurry of a steeplechase or a +very quick thing with hounds, its niceties come more readily under the +notice of an observer on the road than in the field. Perhaps the Ride in +Hyde Park is the place of all others where this quality is most +appreciated, and, shall we add? most rarely to be found. A perfect Park +hack, that can walk or canter five miles an hour, no light criterion of +action and balance, should also be so well broke, and so well ridden, as +to change its leg, if asked to do so, at every stride. "With woven +paces," if not "with waving arms," I have seen rider and horse threading +in and out the trees that bisect Rotten Row, without missing _one_, for +half a mile on end; the animal leading with near or off leg, as it +inclined to left or right, guided only by the inflection of the rider's +body, and the touch, too light to be called a pressure, of his knee and +leg. How seldom does one see a horse ridden properly round a corner. He +is usually allowed to turn on his shoulders, with his hind-legs too far +back to be of the slightest assistance if he slips or stumbles, and +should the foothold be greasy, as may happen in London streets, down he +comes flat on his side. Even at a walk, or slow trot, he should be +collected, and his outer flank pressed inwards by his rider's heel, so +that the motive power in hocks and thighs is kept under his own body, +and the weight on his back. In the canter it stands to reason that he +should lead with the inner leg, otherwise it is very possible he may +cross the other over it, and fall like a lump of lead. + +I remember seeing the famous Lord Anglesey ride his hack at that pace +nineteen times out of Piccadilly into Albemarle Street, before it turned +the corner exactly to his mind. The handsome old warrior who _looked_ no +less distinguished than he _was_, had, as we know, a cork leg, and its +oscillation no doubt interfered with those niceties of horsemanship in +which he delighted. Nevertheless at the twentieth trial he succeeded, +and a large crowd, collected to watch him, seemed glad of an opportunity +to give their Waterloo hero a hearty cheer as he rode away. + +Perhaps the finest pair of hands to be seen amongst the frequenters of +the Park in the present day belong to Mr. Mackenzie Greaves, a retired +cavalry officer of our own service, who, passionately fond of hunting +and everything connected with horses, has lately turned his attention to +the subtleties of the _haute ecole_, nowhere better understood, by a +select few, than in Paris, where he usually resides. To watch this +gentleman on a horse he has broken in himself, gliding through the +crowd, as if by mere volition, with the smoothness, ease, and rapidity +of a fish arrowing up a stream, makes one quite understand how the myth +of the Centaur originated in the sculpture and poetry of Greece. + +In common with General Laurenson, whose name I have already mentioned +as just such another proficient, his system is very similar to that of +Monsieur Baucher, one of the few lovers of the animal either in France +or England, who have so studied its character as to reduce equine +education to a science. Its details are far too elaborate to enter on +here, but one of its first principles, applied in the most elementary +tuition, is never to let the horse recoil from his bridle. + +"Drop your hands!" say nine good riders out of ten, when the pupil's +head is thrown up to avoid control. "Not so," replies Baucher. "On the +contrary, tighten and increase your pressure more and more, keeping the +rebel up to his bit with legs and spurs if necessary, till _he_ yields, +not you; then on the instant, rapidly and dexterously, as you would +strike in fly-fishing, give to him, and he will come into your hand!" + +I have tried his method myself, in more than one instance, and am +inclined to think it is founded on common sense. + +But in all our dealings with him, we should remember that the horse's +mouth is naturally delicate and sensitive though we so often find it +hardened by violence and ill-usage. The amount of force we apply, +therefore, whether small or great, should be measured no less accurately +than the drops of laudanum administered to a patient by the nurse. Reins +are intended for the guidance of the horse, not the support of his +rider, and if you do not feel secure without holding on by something, +rather than pluck at his mouth, accept the ridicule of the position with +its safety, and grasp the mane! + +Seriously, you may do worse in a difficulty when your balance is in +danger, and instinct prompts you to restore it, as, if a horse is +struggling out of a bog, has dropped his hind-legs in a brook, or +otherwise come on his nose without actually falling, nothing so impedes +his endeavours to right himself as a tug of the bridle at an inopportune +moment. + +That instrument should be used for its legitimate purposes alone, and a +strong seat in the saddle is the first essential for a light hand on the +rein. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +SEAT. + + +Some people tell you they ride by "balance," others by "grip." I think a +man might as well say he played the fiddle by "finger," or by ear. +Surely in either case a combination of both is required to sustain the +performance with harmony and success. The grip preserves the balance, +which in turn prevents the grip becoming irksome. To depend on the one +alone is to come home very often with a dirty coat, to cling wholly by +the other is to court as much fatigue in a day as ought to serve for a +week. I have more than once compared riding to swimming, it seems to +require the same buoyancy of spirits, the same venture of body, the same +happy combination of confidence, strength, and skill. + +The seat a man finds easiest to himself, says the inimitable Mr. +Jorrocks, "will in all humane probability be the easiest to his 'oss!" +and in this, as in every other remark of the humorous grocer, there is +no little wisdom and truth. "If he go smooth, I am,"[95-1] said a +Frenchman, to whom a friend of mine offered a mount, "if he go rough, I +shall not remain!" and doubtless the primary object of getting into a +saddle, is to stay there at our own convenience, so long as +circumstances permit. + + [95-1] _J'y suis._ + +But what a number of different attitudes do men adopt, in order to +insure this permanent settlement. There is no position, from the tongs +in the fender, to the tailor on his shop-board, into which the +equestrian has not forced his unaccustomed limbs, to avoid involuntary +separation from his beast. The dragoon of fifty years ago was drilled to +ride with a straight leg, and his foot barely resting on the stirrup, +whereas the oriental cavalry soldier, no mean proficient in the +management of horse and weapon, tucks his knees up nearly to his chin, +so that when he rises in the saddle, he towers above his little Arab as +if he were standing rather than sitting on its back. The position, he +argues, gives him a longer reach, and a stronger purchase for the use of +sword and spear. If we are to judge by illuminated copies of Froissart, +and other contemporary chronicles, it would seem that the armour-clad +knight of the olden time, trusting in the depth and security of his +saddle, _rode so long_ as to derive no assistance whatever from his +stirrups, sitting down on his horse as much as possible, in dread, may +be, lest the point of an adversary's lance should hoist him fairly out +of his place over a cantle six inches high, and send him clanging to the +ground, in mail and plate, surcoat, helmet and plumes, with his +lady-love, squires, yeomen, the marshals of the lists, and all his +feudal enemies looking on! + +Now the length of stirrup with which a man should ride, and in its +adjustment consists much of the ease, grace, and security of his +position, depends on the conformation of his lower limbs. If his thighs +are long in proportion to his frame, flat and somewhat curved inwards, +he will sit very comfortably at the exact length that raises him clear +of his horse's withers, when he stands up in his stirrups with his feet +home, and the majority of men thus limbed, on the majority of horses, +will find this a good general rule. But when the legs are short and +muscular, the thighs round and thick, the whole frame square and strong, +more like wrestling than dancing, and many very superior riders are of +this figure, the leathers must be pulled up a couple of holes, and the +foot thrust a little more forward, to obtain the necessary security of +seat, at a certain sacrifice of grace and even ease. To look as neat as +one can is a compliment to society, to be safe and comfortable is a duty +to oneself. + +Much also depends on the animal we bestride. Horses low in the withers, +and strong behind the saddle, particularly if inclined to "catch hold" a +little, require in all cases rather shorter stirrups than their easier +and truer-shaped stable-companions, nay, the varying roundness of barrel +at different stages of condition affects the attitude of a rider, and +most of us must have remarked, as horse and master get finer drawn +towards the spring, how we let out the stirrups in proportion as we take +in waistbelt, and saddle girths. Men rode well nevertheless, witness the +Elgin marbles, before the invention of this invaluable aid to +horsemanship; and no equestrian can be considered perfect who is unable +in a plunge or leap to stick on his horse bare-backed. Every boy should +be taught to ride without stirrups, but not till he is tall and strong +enough to grasp his pony firmly between his knees. A child of six or +seven might injure itself in the effort, and ten, or eleven, is an early +age enough for our young gentleman to be initiated into the subtleties +of the art. My own idea is that he should begin without reins, so as to +acquire a seat totally independent of his hands, and should never be +trusted with a bridle till it is perfectly immaterial to him whether he +has hold of it or not. Neither should it be restored, after his stirrups +have been taken away, till he has again proved himself independent of +its support. When he has learnt to canter round the school, and sit firm +over a leaping bar, with his feet swinging loose, and his hands in his +pockets, he will have become a better horseman than ninety-nine out of +every hundred who go out hunting. Henceforward you may trust him to take +care of himself, and _swim alone_. + +In every art it is well to begin from the very first with the best +method; and I would instil into a pupil, even of the tenderest years, +that although his legs, and especially his knees, are to be applied +firmly to his pony's sides, as affording a security against tumbling +off, it is _from the loins_ that he must really ride, when all is said +and done. + +I dare say most of us can remember the mechanical horse exhibited in +Piccadilly some ten or twelve years ago, a German invention, remarkable +for its ingenuity and the wonderful accuracy with which it imitated, in +an exaggerated degree, the kicks, plunges, and other outrages practised +by the most restive of the species to unseat their riders. Shaped in the +truest symmetry, clad in a real horse's skin, with flowing mane and +tail, this automaton represented the live animal in every particular, +but for the pivot on which it turned, a shaft entering the belly below +its girths, and communicating through the floor with the machinery that +set in motion and regulated its astonishing vagaries. On mounting, the +illusion was complete. Its very neck was so constructed with hinges +that, on pulling at the bridle, it gave you its head without changing +the direction of its body, exactly like an unbroken colt as yet +intractable to the bit. At a word from the inventor, spoken in his own +language to his assistants below, this artificial charger committed +every kind of wickedness that could be devised by a fiend in equine +shape. It reared straight on end; it lunged forward with its nose +between its fore-feet, and its tail elevated to a perpendicular, awkward +and ungainly as that of a swan _in reverse_. It lay down on its side; it +rose to its legs with a bounce, and finally, if the rider's strength and +dexterity enabled him still to remain in the saddle, it wheeled round +and round with a velocity that could not fail at last to shoot him out +of his seat on to the floor, humanely spread with mattresses, in +anticipation of this inevitable catastrophe. It is needless to say how +such an exhibition _drew_, with so horse-loving a public as our own. No +gentleman who fancied he could "ride a bit" was satisfied till he had +taken his shilling's worth and the mechanical horse had put him on his +back. But for the mattresses, Piccadilly could have counted more broken +collar-bones than ever did Leicestershire in the blindest and deepest of +its Novembers. Rough-riders from the Life-Guards, Blues, Artillery, and +half the cavalry regiments in the service, came to try conclusions with +the spectre; and, like antagonists of some automaton chess-player, +retired defeated and dismayed. + +For this universal failure, one could neither blame the men nor the +military system taught in their schools. It stands to reason that human +wind and muscle must sooner or later succumb to mechanical force. The +inventor himself expressed surprise at the consummate horsemanship +displayed by many of his fallen visitors, and admitted that more than +one rough-rider would have tired out and subjugated any living creature +of real flesh and blood; while the essayists universally declared the +imitation so perfect, that at no period of the struggle could they +believe they were contending with clock-work, rather than the natural +efforts of some wild unbroken colt. + +But those who succeeded best, I remarked (and I speak with some little +experience, having myself been indebted to the mattresses in my turn), +were the horsemen who, allowing their loins to play freely, yielding +more or less to every motion of the figure, did not trust exclusively +for firmness of seat to the clasp of their knees and thighs. The mere +balance rider had not a chance, the athlete who stuck on by main force +found himself hurled into the air, with a violence proportioned to his +own stubborn resistance; but the artist who judiciously combined +strength with skill, giving a little _here_ that he might get a stronger +purchase _there_, swaying his body loosely to meet and accompany every +motion, while he kept his legs pressed hard against the saddle, +withstood trick after trick, and shock after shock creditably enough, +till a hint muttered in German that it was time to displace him, put +such mechanism in motion as settled the matter forthwith. + +There was one detail, however, to be observed in the equipment of the +mechanical horse that brings us to a question I have heard discussed +amongst the best riders with very decided opinions on either side. + +Formerly every saddle used to be made with padding about half an inch +deep, sewn in the front rim of the flap against which a rider rests his +knee, for the purpose, as it would seem, of affording him a stronger +seat with its resistance and support. + +Thirty or forty years ago a few noted sportsmen, despising such +adventitious aid, began to adopt the open, or plain-flapped saddle; and, +although not universal, it has now come into general use. It would +certainly, of the two, have been the better adapted to the automaton I +have described, as an inequality of surface was sadly in the way when +the figure in its downward perpendicular, brought the rider's foot +parallel with the point of its shoulders. The man's calf then +necessarily slipped over the padding of his saddle, and it was +impossible for him to get his leg back to its right place in time for a +fresh outbreak when the model rose again to its proper level. + +As I would prefer an open saddle for the artificial, so I do for the +natural horse, and I will explain why. + +I take it as a general and elementary rule, there is no better position +for a rider than that which brings shoulder, hip, knee, and heel into +one perpendicular line. A man thus placed on his horse cannot but sit +well down with a bend in his back, and in this attitude, the one into +which he would naturally fall, if riding at full speed, he has not only +security of seat, but great command over the animal he bestrides. He +will find, nevertheless, in crossing a country, or otherwise practising +feats of horsemanship requiring the exercise of strength, that to get +his knee an inch or two in advance of the correct line will afford such +leverage as it were for the rest of his body as gives considerable +advantage in any unusual difficulty, such as a drop-leap, for instance, +with which he may have to contend. Now in the plain-flapped saddle, he +can bend his leg as much as he likes, and put it indeed where he will. + +This facility, too, is very useful in smuggling through a gap by a tree, +often the most convenient egress, to make use of which, with a little +skill and prudence, is a less hazardous experiment than it looks. A +horse will take good care not to graze his own skin, and the space that +admits of clearing his hips is wide enough for his rider's leg as well, +if he hangs it over the animal's shoulder just where its neck is set on +to the withers. But I would caution him to adopt this attitude carefully +and above all, in good time. He should take his foot out of the stirrup +and make his preparatory arrangements some three or four strides off at +least, so as to accommodate his change of seat to the horse's canter +before rising at the leap, and if he can spare his hand nearest the +tree, so as to "fend it off" a little at the same time, he will be +surprised to find how safely and pleasantly he accomplished a transit +through some awkward and dangerous fence. + +But he must beware of delaying this little manoeuvre till the last +moment, when his horse is about to spring. It is then too late, and he +will either find himself so thrown out of his seat as to lose balance +and grip too, or will try to save his leg by shifting it back instead of +_forward_, when much confusion, bad language, and perhaps a broken +knee-pan will be the result. + +Amongst other advantages of the open saddle we must not forget that it +is cheaper by twenty shillings, and so sets off the shape of his +forehand as to make a hunter look more valuable by twenty pounds. + +Nevertheless, it is still repudiated by some of our finest horsemen, +who allege the sufficient reason that an inch or so of stuffing adds to +their strength and security of seat. This, after all is, the _sine qua +non_, to which every article of equipment, even the important items of +boots and breeches, should be subservient, and I may here remark that +ease and freedom of dress are indispensable to a man who wishes to ride +across a country not only in comfort, but in safety. I am convinced that +tight, ill-fitting leathers may have broken bones to answer for. Many a +good fellow comes down to breakfast, stiff of gait, as if he were +clothed in buckram, and can we wonder that he is hurt when thus hampered +and constrained, he falls stark and rigid, like a paste-board policeman +in a pantomime. + +I have already protested against the solecism of saving yourself by the +bridle. It is better, if you _must_ have assistance, to follow the +example of two or three notoriously fine riders and grasp the cantle of +the saddle at the risk of breaking its tree. But in my humble opinion it +is not well to be in the wrong even with Plato, and, notwithstanding +these high authorities, we must consider such habits, however convenient +on occasion, as errors in horsemanship. To a good rider the saddle ought +to be a place of security as easy as an armchair. + +I have heard it asserted, usually by persons of lean and wiry frames, +that with short legs and round thighs, it is impossible to acquire a +firm seat on horseback; but in this, as in most matters of skill, I +believe nature can be rendered obedient to education. Few men are so +clumsily shaped but that they may learn to become strong and skilful +riders if they will adopt a good system, and from the first resolve to +sit _in the right place_; this, I think, should be in the very middle of +the saddle, while bending the small of the back inwards, so that the +weight of the body rests on that part of a horse's spine immediately +behind his withers, under which his fore feet are placed, and on which, +it has been ascertained, he can bear the heaviest load. When the animal +stands perfectly still, or when it is extended at full speed, the most +inexperienced horseman seems to fall naturally into the required +position; but to preserve it, even through the regulated paces of the +riding school demands constant effort and attention. The back-board is +here, in my opinion, of great assistance to the beginner, as it forces +him into an attitude that causes him to sit on the right part of his own +person and his horse's back. It compels him also to carry his hands at a +considerable distance off the horse's head, and thus entails also the +desideratum of long reins. + +The shortest and surest way, however, of attaining a firm seat on +horseback is, after all, to practise without stirrups on every available +opportunity. Many a valuable lesson may be taken while riding to covert +and nobody but the student be a bit the wiser. Thus to trot and canter +along, for two or three miles on end is no bad training at the beginning +of the season, and even an experienced horseman will be surprised to +find how it gets him down in his saddle, and makes him feel as much at +home there as he did in the previous March. + +The late Captain Percy Williams, as brilliant a rider over a country as +ever cheered a hound, and to whom few professional jockeys would have +cared to give five pounds on a race-course, assured me that he +attributed to the above self-denying exercise that strength in the +saddle which used to serve him so well from the distance home. When +quartered at Hounslow with his regiment, the 9th Lancers, like other gay +young light dragoons, he liked to spend all his available time in +London. There were no railroads in those days, and the coaches did not +always suit for time; but he owned a sound, speedy, high-trotting hack, +and on this "bone setter" he travelled backwards and forwards twelve +miles of the great Bath Road, with military regularity, half as many +times a week. He made it a rule to cross the stirrups over his horse's +shoulders the moment he was off the stones at either end, only to be +replaced when he reached his destination. In three months' time, he told +me, he had gained more practical knowledge of horsemanship, and more +muscular power below the waist, than in all the hunting, larking, and +riding-school drill of the previous three years. + +Grace is, after all, but the result of repressed strength. The loose +and easy seat that seems to sway so carelessly with every motion, can +tighten itself by instinct to the compression of a vice, and the +"prettiest rider," as they say in Ireland, is probably the one whom a +kicker or buck-jumper would find the most difficult to dislodge. No +doubt in the field, the ride, the parade, or the polo-ground a strong +seat is the first of those many qualities that constitute good +horsemanship. The real adept is not to be unseated by any catastrophe +less conclusive than complete downfall of man and beast; nay, even then +he parts company without confusion, and it may be said of him as of +"William of Deloraine," good at need in a like predicament-- + + "Still sate the warrior, saddle fast, + Till, stumbling in the mortal shock, + Down went the steed, the girthing broke, + Hurled in a heap lay man and horse." + +But I have a strong idea Sir William did not let his bridle go even +then. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +VALOUR. + + +"He that would venture nothing must not get on horseback," says a +Spanish proverb, and the same caution seems applicable to most manly +amusements or pursuits. We cannot enter a boat, put on a pair of skates, +take a gun in hand for covert shooting, or even run downstairs in a +hurry without encountering risk; but the amount of peril to which a +horseman subjects himself seems proportioned inversely to the +unconsciousness of it he displays. + +"Where there is no fear there is no danger," though a somewhat reckless +aphorism, is more applicable, I think, to the exercise of riding than to +any other venture of neck and limbs. The horse is an animal of +exceedingly nervous temperament, sympathetic too, in the highest degree, +with the hand from which he takes his instructions. Its slightest +vacillation affects him with electric rapidity, but from its steadiness +he derives moral encouragement rather than physical support, and on +those rare occasions when his own is insufficient, he seems to borrow +daring and resolution from his rider. + +If the man's heart is in the right place, his horse will seldom fail +him; and were we asked to name the one essential without which it is +impossible to attain thorough proficiency in the saddle, we should not +hesitate to say nerve. + +_Nerve_, I repeat, in contradistinction to _pluck_. The latter takes us +into a difficulty, the former brings us out of it. Both are comprised in +the noble quality we call emphatically valour, but while the one is a +brilliant and imposing costume, so is the other an honest wear-and-tear +fabric, equally fit for all weathers, fine and foul. + +"You shiver, Colonel--you are afraid," said an insubordinate Major, who +ought to have been put under arrest then and there, to his commanding +officer on the field of Prestonpans. "I _am_ afraid, sir," answered the +Colonel; "and if you were as much afraid as I am, _you would run away_!" + +I have often thought this improbable anecdote exemplifies very clearly +that most meritorious of all courage which asserts the dominion of our +will over our senses. The Colonel's answer proves he was full of valour. +He had lots of pluck, but as he was bold enough to admit, a deficiency +of nerve. + +Now the field of Diana happily requires but a slight per-centage of +daring and resolution compared with the field of Mars. I heard the late +Sir Francis Head, distinguished as a soldier, a statesman, an author, +and a sportsman, put the matter in a few words, very tersely--and +exceedingly to the point. "Under fire," said he, "there is a +guinea's-worth of danger, but it comes to you. In the hunting-field, +there is only three-ha'p 'orth, but _you go to it_!" In both cases, the +courage required is a mere question of degree, and as in war, so in the +chase, he is most likely to distinguish himself whose daring, not to be +dismayed, is tempered with coolness, whose heart is always stout and +hopeful, while he never loses his head. + +Now as I understand the terms pluck and nerve, I conceive the first to +be a moral quality, the result of education, sentiment, self-respect, +and certain high aspirations of the intellect; the second, a gift of +nature dependent on the health, the circulation, and the liver. As +memory to imagination in the student, so is nerve to pluck in the +horseman. Not the more brilliant quality, nor the more captivating, but +sound, lasting, available for all emergencies, and sure to conquer in +the long run. + +We will suppose two sportsmen are crossing a country equally well +mounted, and each full of valour to the brim. A, to quote his admiring +friends, "has the pluck of the devil!" B, to use a favourite expression +of the saddle-room, "has a good nerve." Both are bound to come to grief +over some forbidding rails at a corner, the only way out, in the line +hounds are running, and neither has any more idea of declining than had +poor Lord Strathmore on a similar occasion when Jem Mason halloaed to +him, "Eternal misery on this side my lord, and certain death on the +other!" So they harden their hearts, sit down in their saddles, and this +is what happens:-- + +A's horse, injudiciously sent at the obstacle, _because_ it is awkward, +a turn too fast, slips in taking off, and strikes the top-rail, which +neither bends nor breaks, just below its knees. A flurried snatch at the +bridle pulls its head in the air, and throws the animal skilfully to the +ground at the moment it most requires perfect freedom for a desperate +effort to keep on its legs. Rider and horse roll over in an "imperial +crowner," and rise to their feet looking wildly about them, totally +disconnected, and five or six yards apart. + +This is not encouraging for B, who is obliged to follow, inasmuch as +the place only offers room for one at a time, but as soon as his leader +is out of the way, he comes steadily and quietly at the leap. His horse +too, slips in the tracks of its fallen comrade, but as it is going in a +more collected form, it contrives to get its fore-legs over the +impediment, which catches it, however, inside the hocks, so that, +balancing for a moment, it comes heavily on its nose. During these +evolutions, B sits motionless in the saddle, giving the animal complete +liberty of rein. An instinct of self-preservation and a good pair of +shoulders turn the scale at the last moment, and although there is no +denying they "had a squeak for it" in the scramble, B and his horse come +off without a fall. + +Now it was pluck that took both these riders into the difficulty, but +nerve that extricated one of them without defeat. + +I am not old enough to have seen the famous Mr. Assheton Smith in the +hunting-field, but many of my early Leicestershire friends could +remember him perfectly at his best, when he hunted that fine and +formidable country, with the avowed determination, daily carried out, +_of going into every field with his hounds_! + +The expenditure of valour, for it really deserves the name necessary to +carry out such a style of riding can only be appreciated by those who +have tried to keep in a good place during thirty or forty minutes, over +any part of the Quorn and Cottesmore counties lying within six miles of +Billesdon. Where should we be but for the gates? I think I may answer, +neither there nor thereabouts! I have reason to believe the many stories +told of "Tom Smith's" skill and daring are little, if at all, +exaggerated. He seems admitted by all to have been the boldest, as he +was one of the best, horsemen that ever got into a saddle with a +hunting-whip in his hand. + +Though subsequently a man of enormous wealth, in the prime of life, he +lived on the allowance, adequate but not extravagant, made him by his +father, and did by no means give those high prices for horses, which, on +the principle that "money makes the mare to go," are believed by many +sportsmen to ensure a place in the front rank. He entertained no fancies +as to size, action, above all, peculiarities in mouths and tempers. +Little or big, sulky, violent, or restive, if a horse could gallop and +jump, he was a hunter the moment he found himself between the legs of +Tom Smith. + +There is a namesake of his hunting at present from Melton, who seems to +have taken several leaves out of his book. Captain Arthur Smith, with +every advantage of weight, nerve, skill, seat, and hand, is never away +from the hounds. Moreover, he always likes his horse, and his horse +always seems to like him. This gentleman, too, is blessed with an +imperturbable temper, which I have been given to understand the squire +of Tedworth was _not_. + +Instances of Tom Smith's daring are endless. How characteristic was his +request to a farmer near Glengorse, that he would construct such a fence +as should effectually prevent the field from getting away in too close +proximity to his hounds. "I can make you up a stopper," said the +good-natured yeoman, "and welcome; but what be you to do yourself, +Squire, for I know you like well to be with 'em when they run?" + +"Never mind me," was the answer, "you do what I ask you. I never saw a +fence in this country I couldn't get over _with a fall_!" and, sure +enough, the first day the hounds found a fox in that well-known covert, +Tom Smith was seen striding along in the wake of his darlings, having +tumbled neck-and-crop over the obstacle he had demanded, in perfect good +humour and content. + +If valour then, is a combination of pluck and nerve, he may be called +the most valorous sportsman that ever got upon a horse, while affording +another example of the partiality with which fortune favours the bold, +for although he has had between eighty and ninety falls in a season, he +was never really hurt, I believe, but once in his life. + +"That is a _brave_ man!" I have heard Lord Gardner say in good-humoured +derision, pointing to some adventurous sportsman, whose daring so far +exceeded his dexterity as to bring horse and rider into trouble; but his +lordship's own nerve was so undeniable, that like many others, he may +have undervalued a quality of which he could not comprehend the want. + +Most hunting-men, I fancy, will agree with me, that of all obstacles we +meet with in crossing a country, timber draws most largely on the +reserve fund of courage hoarded away in that part of a hero's heart +which is nearest his mouth. The highest rails I ever saw attempted were +ridden at by Lord Gardner some years ago, while out with Mr. Tailby's +hounds near the Ram's Head. With a fair holding scent, and the pack +bustling their fox along over the grass, there was no time for +measurement, but I remember perfectly well that being in the same field, +some fifty yards behind him, and casting longing looks at the fence, +totally impracticable in every part, I felt satisfied the corner he made +for was simply an impossibility. + +"We had better turn round and go home!" I muttered in my despair. + +The leap consisted of four strong rails, higher than a horse's withers, +an approach down hill, a take-off poached by cattle, and a landing into +a deep muddy lane. I can recall at this moment, the beautiful style in +which my leader brought his horse to its effort. Very strong in the +saddle, with the finest hands in the world, leaning far back, and +sitting well down, he seemed to rouse as it were, and concentrate the +energies of the animal for its last half-stride, when, rearing itself +almost perpendicularly, it contrived to get safe over, only breaking the +top rail with a hind leg. + +This must have lowered the leap by at least a foot, yet when I came to +it, thus reduced, and "made easy," it was still a formidable obstacle, +and I felt thankful to be on a good jumper. + +Of late years I have seen Mr. Powell, who is usually very well mounted, +ride over exceedingly high and forbidding timber so persistently, as to +have earned from that material, the _nom de chasse_ by which he is known +amongst his friends. + +But perhaps the late Lord Cardigan, the last of the Brudenells, +afforded in the hunting-field, as in all other scenes of life, the most +striking example of that "pluck" which is totally independent of youth, +health, strength, or any other physical advantage. The courage that in +advanced middle-age governed the steady manoeuvres of Bulganak, and +led the death-ride at Balaclava, burned bright and fierce to the end. +The graceful seat might be less firm, the tall soldier-like figure less +upright, but Mars, one of his last and best hunters, was urged to charge +wood and water by the same bold heart at seventy, that tumbled Langar +into the Uppingham road over the highest gate in Leicestershire at +twenty-six. The foundation of Lord Cardigan's whole character was +valour. He loved it, he prized it, he admired it in others, he was +conscious and proud of it in himself. + +So jealous was he of this chivalrous quality, that even in such a matter +of mere amusement as riding across a country, he seemed to attach some +vague sense of disgrace to the avoidance of a leap, however dangerous, +if hounds were running at the time, and was notorious for the +recklessness with which he would plunge into the deepest rivers though +he could not swim a stroke! + +This I think is to court _real_ danger for no sufficient object. + +Lord Wolverton, than whom no man has ridden straighter and more +enthusiastically to hounds, ever since he left Oxford, once crossed the +Thames in this most perilous fashion, for he, too, has never learnt to +swim, during a run with "the Queen's." "But," said I, protesting +subsequently against such hardihood, "you were risking your life at +every stroke." + +"I never thought of that," was the answer, "till I got safe over, and it +was no use bothering about it then." + +Lord Cardigan however, seemed well aware of his danger, and, in my own +recollection, had two very narrow escapes from drowning in these +uncalled-for exploits. + +The gallant old cavalry officer's death was in keeping with his whole +career. At threescore years and ten he insisted on mounting a dangerous +animal that he would not have permitted any friend to ride. What +happened is still a mystery. The horse came home without him, and he +never spoke again, though he lived till the following day. + +But these are sad reflections for so cheerful a subject as daring in +the saddle. Red is our colour, not black, and, happily, in the sport we +love, there are few casualties calling forth more valour than is +required to sustain a bloody nose, a broken collar-bone, or a sound +ducking in a wet ditch. Yet it is extraordinary how many good fellows +riding good horses find themselves defeated in a gallop after hounds, +from indecision and uncertainty, rather than want of courage, when the +emergency actually arises. Though the danger, according to Sir Francis +Head, is about a hap'orth, it might possibly be valued at a penny, and +nobody wants to discover, in his own person, the exact amount. Therefore +are the chivalry of the Midland Counties to be seen on occasion +panic-stricken at the downfall or disappearance of a leader. And a dozen +feet of dirty water will wholly scatter a field of horsemen who would +confront an enemy's fire without the quiver of an eye-lash. Except +timber, of which the risk is obvious, at a glance, nothing frightens the +_half_-hard, so much as a brook. It is difficult, you see, to please +them, the uncertainty of the limpid impediment being little less +forbidding than the certainty of the stiff! + +But it does require dash and coolness, pluck and nerve, a certain spice +of something that may fairly be called valour, to charge cheerfully at a +brook when we have no means of ascertaining its width, its depth, or the +soundness of its banks. Horses too are apt to share the misgivings of +their riders, and water-jumping, like a loan to a poor relation, if not +done freely, had better not be done at all. + +The fox, and consequently the hounds, as we know, will usually cross at +the narrowest place, but even if we can mark the exact spot, fences, or +the nature of the ground may prevent our getting there. What are we to +do? If we follow a leader, and he drops short, we are irretrievably +defeated, if we make our own selection, the gulf may be as wide as the +Thames. "Send him at it!" says valour, "and take your chance!" Perhaps +it is the best plan after all. There is something in luck, a good deal +in the reach of a horse's stride at a gallop, and if we _do_ get over, +we _rather_ flatter ourselves for the next mile or two that we have +"done the trick!" + +To enter on the subject of "hard riding," as it is called, without +honourable mention of the habit and the side-saddle, would in these days +betray both want of observation and politeness; but ladies, though they +seem to court danger no less freely than admiration, possess, I think, +as a general rule, more pluck than nerve. I can recall an instance very +lately, however, in which I saw displayed by one of the gentlest of her +sex, an amount of courage, coolness, and self-possession, that would +have done credit to a hero. This lady, who had not quite succeeded in +clearing a high post-and-rail with a boggy ditch on the landing side, +was down and under her horse. The animal's whole weight rested on her +legs, so as to keep her in such a position, that her head lay between +its fore and hind feet, where the least attempt at a struggle, hemmed in +by those four shining shoes, must have dashed her brains out. She seemed +in no way concerned for her beauty, or her life, but gave judicious +directions to those who rescued her as calmly and courteously as if she +had been pouring out their tea. + +The horse, though in that there is nothing unusual, behaved like an +angel, and the fair rider was extricated without very serious injury; +but I thought to myself, as I remounted and rode on, that if a legion of +Amazons could be rendered amenable to discipline they would conquer the +world. + +No man, till he has tried the experiment, can conceive how awkward and +powerless one feels in a lady's seat. They themselves affirm that with +the crutch, or second pommel on the near side, they are more secure than +ourselves; but when I see those delicate, fragile forms flying over wood +and water, poised on precipitous banks, above all, crashing through +strong bullfinches, I am struck with admiration at the mysteries of +nature, among which not the least wonderful seems the feminine desire to +excel. And they _do_ excel when resolved they will, even in those sports +and exercises which seem more naturally belonging to the masculine +department. It was but the other day, a boatman in the Channel told me +he saw a lady swimming alone more than half a mile off shore. Now that +the universal rink has brought skating into fashion, the "many-twinkling +feet," that smoothest glide and turn most deftly, are shod with such +dainty boots as never could be worn by the clumsier sex. At lawn-tennis +the winning service is offered by some seductive hoyden in her teens; +and, although in the game of cricket the Graces have as yet been males, +at no distant day we may expect to see the best batsman at the Oval +bowled out, or perhaps caught by a woman! + +Yes, the race is in the ascendant. It takes the heaviest fish,--I mean +_real_ fish--with a rod and line. It kills its grouse right and left--in +the moor among the heather. It shoulders a rifle no heavier than a +pea-shooter, but levels the toy so straight that, after some cunning +stalk, a "stag of ten" goes down before the white hand and taper finger, +as becomes his antlers and his sex. Lastly, when it gets upon Bachelor, +or Benedict, or Othello, or any other high-flyer with a suggestive name, +it sails away close, often too close, to the hounds, leaving brothers, +husbands, even admirers hopelessly in the rear. + +Now, I hope I am not going to express a sentiment that will offend +their prejudices, and cause young women to call me an old one, but I do +consider that, in these days, ladies who go out hunting _ride a turn too +hard_. Far be it from me to assert that the Field is no place for the +fair; on the contrary, I hold that their presence adds in every respect +to its charms. Neither would I protest against their jumping, and +relegate them to the bridle-roads or lanes. Nothing of the kind. Let the +greatest care be taken in the selection of their horses; let their +saddles and bridles be fitted to such a nicety that sore backs and sore +mouths are equally impossible, and let trustworthy servants be told off +to attend them during the day. Then, with everything in their favour, +over a fair country, fairly fenced, why should they not ride on and take +their pleasure? + +But even if their souls disdain to follow a regular pilot (and I may +observe his office requires no little nerve, as they are pretty quick on +to a leader if he gets down), I would entreat them not to try "cutting +out the work," as it is called, but rather to wait and see one rider, at +least, over a leap before they attempt it themselves. It is frightful to +think of a woman landing in a pit, a water-course, or even so deep a +ditch as may cause the horse to roll over her when he falls. With her +less muscular frame she is more easily injured than a man; with her +finer organisation she cannot sustain injury as well. It turns one sick +to think of her dainty head between a horse's hind-legs, or of those +cruel pommels bruising her delicate ribs and bosom. It is at least +twenty to one in _our_ favour every time we fall, whereas with her the +odds are all the other way, and it is almost twenty to one she must be +hurt. + +What said the wisest of kings concerning a fair woman without +discretion? We want no Solomon to remind us that with her courage +roused, her ambition excited, all the rivalry of her nature called into +play, she has nowhere more need of this judicious quality than in the +hunting-field. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +DISCRETION. + + +It has been called the better part of valour, and doubtless, when +wanting, the latter is as likely to sustain irretrievable reverses as a +ship without a rudder, or a horse without a bridle. The two should +always travel together; but it appears to me that we meet the cautious +brother most frequently on our journey through life. + +In the chase, however, they seem to share their presence impartially +enough. Valour is very much to the front at the covert side, and shows +again with great certainty after dinner; but discretion becomes +paramount and almost ubiquitous when the hounds run, being called on +indeed to act for us in every field. Sometimes, particularly when +countries are blind early in November, we abandon ourselves so entirely +to its guidance as little by little to lose all our self-reliance, till +at last we feel comfortable nowhere but in the high road; and most of +us, I dare say, can recall occasions on which we have been so utterly +discomfited by an early disappointment (in plain English a fence we were +afraid to jump) as to give in without an effort, although the slightest +dash of valour at the right moment would have carried us triumphantly +out of defeat. + +Never mind. Like a French friend of mine, who expresses his +disinclination to our _chasse au renard_ by protesting, "_Monsieur, je +ne cherche pas mes emotions a me casser le cou_," when we are avowedly +in pursuit of pleasure we ought to take it exactly as suits us best. +There are two ends of the string in every run with hounds. Wisdom +pervades each of these, but eschews the various gradations between. In +front rides valour with discretion; in rear, discretion without valour; +and in the middle a tumultuous throng, amongst whom neither quality is +to be recognised. With too little of the one to fly, not enough of the +other to creep, they waver at the fences, hurry at the gaps, get in each +other's way at the gates, and altogether make exceedingly slow progress +compared to their efforts and their excitement. + +Valour without discretion, I had almost forgotten to observe, was down +and under his horse at the first difficulty. + +We will let the apex of the pyramid alone for the present, taking the +safest and broadest end of the hunt first. + +If, then, you have achieved so bad a start that it is impossible to make +up your lee-way, or if you are on a hack with neither power nor +intention to ride in the front rank, be sure you cannot take matters too +coolly should you wish to command the line of chase and see as much as +possible of the fun. + +I am supposing the hounds have found a good fox that knows more than +one parish, and are running him with a holding scent. However favourable +your start, and fate is sure to arrange a good one for a man too badly +mounted to avail himself of it, let nothing induce you to keep near the +pack. At a mile off you can survey and anticipate their general +direction, at a quarter that distance you must ride every turn. Do not +be disordered by the brilliancy of the pace should their fox go straight +up wind. If he does not sink it within five minutes he means reaching a +drain, and another five will bring the "who-whoop!" that marks him to +ground. This is an unfailing deduction, but happily the most discreet of +us are apt to forget it. Time after time we are so fooled by the +excitement of our gallop that even experience does not make us wise, and +we enjoy the scurry, exclaiming, "What a pity!" when it is over, as if +we had never been out hunting before. It would be useless to distress +your hack for so short a spin, rather keep wide of the line, if +possible, on high ground, and calculate by the wind, the coverts, and +the general aspect of the country, where a fox is most likely to make +his point. + +I have known good runs in the Shires seen fairly, from end to end, by a +lady in a wagonette. + +When business really begins, men are apt to express in various ways +their intention of taking part. Some use their eyes, some their heels, +and some their flasks. Do you trust your brains, they will stand you in +better stead than spurs, or spectacles, or even brandy diluted with +curacoa. Keep your attention fixed on the chase, watch the pack as long +as you can, and when those white specks have vanished into space, depend +on your own skill in woodcraft and knowledge of country to bring you up +with them again. Above all, while they are actually in motion, distrust +the bobbing hats and spots of scarlet that you mark in a distant cluster +behind the hedge. What are they but the field? and the field, if it is +_really_ a run, are pretty sure to be _out of it_. + +The first flight you will find very difficult to keep in view. At the +most it consists of six or seven horsemen riding fifty or a hundred +yards apart, and even its followers become so scattered and detached +that in anything like an undulating country they are completely hidden +from observation. If you _do_ catch a glimpse of them, how slow they +seem to travel! and yet, when you nick in presently, heaving flanks, red +faces, and excited voices will tell a very different tale. + +Trotting soberly along, then, with ears and eyes wide open, carefully +keeping down wind, not only because the hounds are sure to bend in that +direction, but also that you can thus hear before you see them, and take +measures accordingly, you will have ridden very few miles before you are +gladdened by the cheerful music of the pack, or more probably a twang +from the horn. The scent is rarely so good as to admit of hounds running +for thirty or forty minutes without a check; indeed, on most days they +are likely to be at fault more than once during the lapse of half an +hour, when the huntsman's science will be required to cast them, and, in +some cases, to assist them in losing their fox. Now is your time to +press on with the still undefeated hack. If you are wise you will not +leave the lanes to which I give you the credit of having stuck +religiously from the start. At least, do not think of entering a field +unless the track of an obvious bridle-road leads safely into the next. + +A man who never jumps at all can by no possibility be "pounded," whereas +the easiest and safest of gaps into an inclosure may mean a bullfinch +with two ditches at the other end. + +Perhaps you will find yourself ahead of every one as the hounds spread, +and stoop and dash forward with a whimper that makes the sweetest of +music in your ears. Perhaps, as they swarm across the very lane in which +you are standing, discretion may calmly open the gate for valour, who +curses him in his heart, wondering what business he has to be there at +all. + +There is jealousy even in the hunting-field, though we prefer to call it +keenness, emulation, a fancy for riding our own line, and I fear that +with most of us, in spite of the kindly sympathies and joyous expansion +of the chase, "_ego et praeterea nihil_" is the unit about which our +aspirations chiefly revolve. + +"What is the use?" I once heard a plaintive voice lamenting behind a +blackthorn, while the hounds were baying over a drain at the finish of a +clipping thirty minutes on the grass. "I've spoilt my hat, I've torn my +coat, I've lamed my horse, I've had two falls, I went first, I'll take +my oath, from end to end, and there's that d--d fellow on the +coffee-coloured pony gets here before me after all!" + +There are times, no doubt, when valour must needs yield the palm to +discretion. + +Let us see how this last respectable quality serves us at the other and +nobler extremity of the hunt, for it is there, after all, that our +ambition points, and our wishes chiefly tend. + +"Are you a hard rider?" asked an inquiring lady of Mr. Jorrocks. + +"The hardest in England," answered that facetious worthy, adding to +himself, "I may say that, for I never goes off the 'ard road if I can +help it." + +Now instead of following so cautious an example, let us rather cast +overboard a superfluity of discretion, that would debar us the post of +honour we are fain to occupy, retaining only such a leavening of its +virtue as will steer us safely between the two extremes. While the +hounds are racing before us, with a good scent, in an open country, let +our gallant hunter be freely urged by valour to the front, while at the +same time, discretion holds him hard by the head, lest a too +inconsiderate daring should endanger his rider's neck. + +If a man has the luck to be on a good timber-jumper, now is the time to +take advantage freely of its confidential resources. If not pulled +about, and interfered with, a hunter that understands his business leaps +this kind of fence, so long as he is fresh, with ease to himself and +security to his rider. He sees exactly what he has to do, and need not +rise an inch higher, nor fling himself an inch farther than is +absolutely necessary, whereas a hedge induces him to make such exertions +as may cover the uncertainty it conceals. But, on the other hand, the +binder will usually bear tampering with, which the bar will _not_, +therefore _if_ your own courage and your horse's skill tempt you to +negotiate rails, stiles, or even a gate--and this last is _very_ good +form--sound discretion warns you to select the first ten or fifteen +minutes of a run for such exhibitions, but to avoid them religiously, +when the deep ground and the pace have begun to tell. + +Assheton Smith himself, though he scouted the idea of ever turning from +anything, had in so far the instinct of self-preservation, that when he +thought his horse likely to fall over such an obstacle, he put him at it +somewhat _a-slant_, so that the animal should get at least one fore-leg +clear, and tumble on to its side, when this accomplished rider was +pretty sure to rise unhurt with the reins in his hand. + +Now this diagonal style of jumping, judiciously practised, is not +without its advantages at less dangerous fences than the uncompromising +bit of timber that turns us over. It necessarily increases the width of +a bank, affording the horse more room for foothold, as it decreases the +height and strength of the growers, by taking them the way they lie, and +may, on occasion, save a good hunter from a broken back, the penalty for +dropping both hind legs simultaneously and perpendicularly into some +steep cut ditch he has failed to cover in his stride. + +Discretion, you observe, should accompany the hardest riders, and is not +to be laid aside even in the confusion and excitement of a fall. + +This must prove a frequent casualty with every man, however +well-mounted, if the hounds show sport and he means to be with them +while they run. It seems a paradox, but the oftener you are down, the +less likely you are to be hurt. Practice soon teaches you to preserve +presence of mind, or, as I may be allowed to call it, discretion, and +when you know exactly where your horse is, you can get away from him +before he crushes you with the weight of his body. A foot or a hand +thrust out at the happy moment, is enough to "fend you off," and your +own person seldom comes to the ground with such force as to do you any +harm, if there is plenty of dirt. In the absence of that essential to +sport, hunters are not distressed, and therefore do not often fall. + +If, however, you have undertaken to temper the rashness of a young one +with your own discretion, you must expect occasional reverses; but even +thus, there are many chances in your favour, not the least of which is +your pupil's elasticity. Lithe and agile, he will make such gallant +efforts to save himself as usually obviate the worst consequences of his +mistake. The worn-out, the under-bred, or the distressed horse comes +down like a lump of lead, and neither valour nor discretion are much +help to us then. + +From the pace at which hounds cross a country, there is unfortunately +no time to practise that most discreet manoeuvre called "leading +over," when the fence is of so formidable a nature as to threaten +certain discomfiture, yet I have seen a few tall, powerful, active men, +spring off and on their horses with such rapidity as to perform this +feat successfully in all the hurry of a burst. The late Colonel Wyndham, +who, when he commanded the Greys, in which regiment he served at +Waterloo, was said by George the Fourth to be the handsomest man in the +army, possessed with a giant's stature the pliant agility of a +harlequin. A finer rider never got into a saddle. Weighing nineteen +stone, I have seen him in a burst across Leicestershire, go for twenty +minutes with the best of the light-weights, occasionally relieving his +horse by throwing himself off, leaping a fence alongside of it, and +vaulting on again, without checking the animal sufficiently to break its +stride. + +The lamented Lord Mayo too, whose tall stalwart frame was in keeping +with those intellectual powers that India still recalls in melancholy +pride, was accustomed, on occasion, thus to surmount an obstacle, no +less successfully among the bullfinches of Northamptonshire than the +banks and ditches of Kildare. Perhaps the best rider of his family, and +it is a bold assertion, for when five or six of the brothers are out +hunting, there will always be that number of tall heavy men, answering +to the name of Bourke in the same field with the hounds, Lord Mayo, or +rather Lord Naas (for the best of his sporting career closed with his +succession to the earldom), was no less distinguished for his daring +horsemanship, than his tact in managing a country, and his skill in +hunting a pack of hounds. That he showed less forethought in risking a +valuable life than in conducting the government of an empire, we must +attribute to his personal courage and keen delight in the chase, but +that he humorously deplored the scarcity of discretion amongst its +votaries, the following anecdote, as I had it from himself, sufficiently +attests. + +While he hunted his own hounds in Kildare, his most constant attendant, +though on foot, was a nondescript character, such as is called "a tight +boy" in Ireland, and nowhere else, belonging to a class that never seem +to do a day's work, nor to eat a plentiful meal, but are always +pleasant, obliging, idle, hungry, thirsty, and supremely happy. Running +ten miles on foot to covert, Mick, as he was called, would never leave +the hounds till they reached their kennels at night. Thus, plodding home +one evening by his lordship's horse, after an unusually long and +fatiguing run, the rider could not help expostulating with the walker on +such a perverse misapplication of strength, energy, and perseverance. +"Why, look at the work you have been doing," said his lordship; "with a +quarter of the labour you might have earned three or four shillings at +least. What a fool you must be, Mick, to neglect your business, and lose +half your potatoes, that you may come out with my hounds!" + +Mick reflected a moment, and looked up, "Ah! me lard," replied he, with +such a glance of fun as twinkles nowhere but in the Irish blue of an +Irish eye, "it's truth your lardship's spakin' this night; _'av there +was no fools, there'd be sorra few fox-hunters!_" + +Let us return to the question of Discretion, and how we are to combine +it with an amusement that makes fools of us all. + +While valour, then, bids us take our fences as they come, discretion +teaches us that each should be accomplished in the manner most suitable +to its peculiar requirements. When a bank offers foothold, and we see +the possibility of dividing a large leap by two, we should pull back to +a trot, and give our horse a hint that he will do well to spring on and +off the obstacle in accordance with a motion of our hand. If, on the +contrary, his effort must be made at a black and forbidding bullfinch, +with the chance of a wide ditch, or even a tough ashen rail, beyond, it +is wise, should we mean having it at all, to catch hold of the bridle +and increase our pace, for the last two or three strides, with such +energy as shall shoot us through the thorns like a harlequin through a +trap-door, leaving the orifice to close up behind, with no more traces +of our transit than are left by a bird! + +[Illustration: Page 138.] + +Perhaps we find an easy place under a tree, with an overhanging +branch, and sidle daintily up to it, bending the body and lowering the +head as we creep through, to the admiration of an indiscreet friend on a +rash horse who spoils a good hat and utters an evil execration while +trying to follow our example. Or it may be, rejoicing to find ourselves +on arable land, that actually rides light, and yet carries a scent, + + "Solid and tall, + The rasping wall" + +challenges us a quarter of a mile off to face it or go home, for it +offers neither gate nor gap, and seems to meet the sky-line on either +side. I do not know whether others are open to the same deception, but +to my own eye, a wall appears more, and a hedge less, than its real +height at a certain distance off. The former, however, is a most +satisfactory leap when skilfully accomplished, and not half so arduous +as it looks. + +"Have it!" says Valour. "Yes, but very slow," replies Discretion. And, +sure enough, we calm the free generous horse into a trot, causing him to +put his very nose over the obstacle before taking off; when bucking into +the air, like a deer, he leaves it behind him with little more effort +than a girl puts to her skipping-rope. The height an experienced +wall-jumper will clear seems scarcely credible. A fence of this +description, which measurement proves to be fully six feet, was jumped +by the well-known Colonel Miles three or four years ago in the Badminton +country without displacing a stone, and although the rider's consummate +horsemanship afforded every chance of success, great credit is due to +the good hunter that could make such an effort with so heavy a man on +its back. + +The knack of wall-jumping, however, is soon learned even by the most +inexperienced animals, and I may here observe that I have often been +surprised at the discretion shown by young horses, when ridden close to +hounds, in negotiating fences requiring sagacity and common sense. I am +aware that my opinion is singular, and I only give it as the result, +perhaps exceptional, of my own limited experience; but I must admit that +I have been carried by a pupil, on his first day, over awkward places, +up and down banks, in and out of ravines, or under trees, with a +docility and circumspection I have looked for from the veterans in vain. +Perhaps the old horse knows me as well as I know him, and thinks also +that he knows best. I am bound to say he never fails me when I trust +him, but he likes his head let alone, and insists on having it all his +own way. When his blood is really up, and the hero of a hundred fights +considers it worth while to put forth his strength, I am persuaded he is +even bolder than his junior. + +Not only at the fences, however, do we require discretion. There is a +right way and a wrong of traversing every acre of ground that lies +between them. On the grass, we must avoid crossing high ridge-and-furrow +in a direct line; rather let us take it obliquely, or, if the field be +not too large, go all the way round by the headland. For an unaccustomed +horse there is nothing so trying as those up-and-down efforts, that +resemble the lurches of a boat in a heavy sea. A very true-shaped animal +will learn to glide smoothly over them after a season or two, but these +inequalities of surface must always be a tax on wind and muscular powers +at best. The easiest goer in ridge-and-furrow that we have yet seen is a +fox. Surely no other quadruped has nature gifted with so much strength +and symmetry in so small a compass. + +Amongst the ploughs, though the fences are happily easier, forethought +and consideration are even more required for ground. After much rain, do +not enter a turnip-field if you can help it, the large, frequent roots +loosen the soil, and your horse will go in up to his hocks; young wheat +also it is well to avoid, if only for reasons purely selfish; but on the +fallows, when you find a _wet_ furrow, lying the right way, put on +steam, splash boldly ahead, and never leave it so long as it serves you +in your line. The same may be said of a foot-path, even though its +guidance should entail the jumping of half-a-dozen stiles. Sound +foothold reduces the size of any leap, and while you are travelling +easily above the ground, the rest of the chase, fox and hounds too, as +well as horses, though in a less degree, are labouring through the mire. + +When your course is intersected by narrow water-cuts, for purposes of +irrigation, by covered drains, or deep, grass-grown cart-ruts, it will +be well to traverse them obliquely, so that, if they catch the stride of +his gallop, your horse may only get one foot in at a time. He will then +right himself with a flounder, whereas, if held by both legs, either +before or behind, the result is a rattling fall, very dangerous to his +back in the one case, and to your own neck in the other. + +Valour of course insists that a hunter should do what he is bid, but +there are some situations in which the beast's discretion pleads +reasonably enough for some forbearance from its master. If a good horse, +thoroughly experienced in the exigencies of the sport, that you have +ridden a season or two, and flatter yourself you understand, +persistently refuses a fence, depend upon it there is sufficient reason. +The animal may be lame from an injury just received, may have displaced +a joint, broken a tendon, or even ruptured an artery. Perhaps it is so +blown as to feel it must fall in the effort you require. At any rate do +not persevere. Horses have been killed, and men also, through a +sentiment of sheer obstinacy that would not be denied, and humanity +should at least think shame to be out-done in discretion by the brute. A +horse is a wise creature enough, or he could never carry us pleasantly +to hounds. An old friend of mine used to say: "People talk about size +and shape, shoulders, quarters, blood, bone, and muscle, but for my +part, give me a hunter with brains. He has to take care of the biggest +fool of the two, and think for both!" + +Discretion, then, is one of the most valuable qualities for an animal +charged with such heavy responsibilities, that bears us happy and +triumphant during the day, and brings us safe home at night. Who would +grudge a journey across St. George's Channel to find this desirable +quality in its highest perfection at Ballinasloe or Cahirmee? for indeed +it is not too much to say that whatever we may think of her natives, the +most discreet and sagacious of our hunters come over from the Emerald +Isle. + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + +IRISH HUNTERS. + + +"An' niver laid an iron to the sod!" was a metaphor I once heard used by +an excellent fellow from Limerick, to convey the brilliant manner in +which a certain four-year-old he was describing performed during a +burst, when, his owner told me, he went clean away from all rivals in +his gallop, and flew every wall, bank, and ditch, in his stride. + +The expression, translated into English, would seem to imply that he +neither perched on the grass-grown banks, with all four feet at once, +like a cat, nor struck back at them with his hind legs, like a dog; and +perhaps my friend made the more account of this hazardous style of +jumping, that it seemed so foreign to the usual characteristics of the +Irish horse. + +For those who have never hunted in Ireland, I must explain that the +country as a general rule is fenced on a primitive system, requiring +little expenditure of capital beyond the labour of a man, or, as he is +there called, "a boy," with a short pipe in his mouth and a spade in his +hand. This light-hearted operative, gay, generous, reckless, +high-spirited, and by no means a free worker, simply throws a bank up +with the soil that he scoops out of the ditch, reversing the process, +and filling the latter by levelling the former, when a passage is +required for carts, or cattle, from one inclosure to the next. I ought +nevertheless to observe, that many landlords, with a munificence for +which I am at a loss to account, go to the expense of erecting massive +pillars of stone, ostensibly gate-posts, at commanding points, between +which supports, however, they seldom seem to hang a gate, though it is +but justice to admit that when they do, the article is usually of iron, +very high, very heavy, and fastened with a strong padlock, though its +object seems less apparent, when we detect within convenient distance on +either side a gap through which one might safely drive a gig. + +It is obvious, then, that this kind of fence, at its widest and +deepest, requires considerable activity as well as circumspection on a +horse's part, and forbearance in handling on that of a rider. The animal +must gather itself to spring like a goat, on the crest of the eminence +it has to surmount, with perfect liberty of head and neck, for the +climb, and subsequent effort, that may, or may not be demanded. Neither +man nor beast can foresee what is prepared for them on the landing side, +and a clever Irish hunter brings itself up short in an instant, should +the gulf be too formidable for its powers, balancing on the brink, to +look for a better spot, or even leaping back again into the field from +which it came. + +That the Irishman rides with a light bridle and lets it very much alone +is the necessary result. His pace at the fences must be slow, because it +is not a horse's nature, however rash, to rush at a place like the side +of a house; and instinct prompts the animal to collect itself without +restraint from a rider's hand, while any interference during the second +and downward spring would only tend to pull it back into the chasm it is +doing its best to clear. + +The efforts by which an Irish hunter surmounts these national +impediments is like that of a hound jumping a wall. The horse leaps to +the top with fore-and-hind feet together, where it dwells, almost +imperceptibly, while shifting the purchase, or "changing," as the +natives call it, in the shortest possible stride, of a few inches at +most, to make the second spring. Every good English hunter will strike +back with his hind legs when surprised into sudden exertion, but only a +proficient bred, or at least, taught in the sister island, can master +the feat described above in such artistic form as leads one to believe +that, like Pegasus, the creature has wings at every heel. No man who has +followed hounds in Meath, Kilkenny, or Kildare will ever forget the +first time, when, to use the vernacular of those delightful countries, +he rode "an accomplished hunter over an intricate lep!" + +But the merit is not heaven-born. On the contrary, it seems the result +of patient and judicious tuition, called by Irish breakers "training," +in which they show much knowledge of character and sound common sense. + +In some counties, such as Roscommon and Connemara, the brood mare +indeed, with the foal at her foot, runs wild over extensive districts, +and, finding no gates against which to lean, leaps leisurely from +pasture to pasture, pausing, perhaps, in her transit to crop the sweeter +herbage from some bank on which she is perched. Where mamma goes her +little one dutifully follows, imitating the maternal motions, and as a +charming mother almost always has a charming daughter, so, from its +earliest foalhood, the future hunter acquires an activity, courage, and +sagacity that shall hereafter become the admiration of crowded +hunting-fields in the land of the Saxon far, far away! + +But whereas in many parts of Ireland improved agriculture denies space +for the unrestrained vagaries of these early lessons, a judicious system +is adopted that substitutes artificial education for that of nature. "It +is wonderful we don't get more falls," said one of the boldest and best +of lady riders, who during many seasons followed the pilotage of Jem +Mason, and but for failing eye-sight, could sometimes have gone before +him, "when we consider that we all ride half-broken horses," and, no +doubt, on our side of the Channel, the observation contained a great +deal of truth. But in this respect our neighbours show more wisdom. They +seldom bring a pupil into the hunting-field till the elementary +discipline has been gone through that teaches him when he comes to his +fence _what to do with it_. He may be three, he may be four. I have seen +a sportsman in Kilkenny so unassumingly equipped that instead of boots +he wore wisps of straw called, I believe, "_sooghauns_" go in front for +a quarter of an hour on a two-year old! Whatever his age, the colt shows +himself an experienced hunter when it is necessary to leap. Not yet +_mouthed_, with unformed paces and wandering action, he may seem the +merest baby on the road or across a field, but no veteran can be wiser +or steadier when he comes within distance of it, or, as his owner would +say, when he "challenges" his leap, and this enthusiast hardly +over-states the truth in affirming that his pupil "would change on the +edge of a razor, and never let ye know he was off the Queen's high-road, +God bless her, all the time!" + +The Irishman, like the Arab, seems to possess a natural insight into the +character of a horse; with many shortcomings as grooms, not the least of +which are want of neatness in stable-management, and rooted dislike to +hard work, except by fits and starts, they cherish extraordinary +affection for their charges, and certainly in their dealings with them +obviously prefer kindness to coercion. I do not think they always +understand feeding judiciously, and many of them have much to learn +about getting horses into condition; but they are unrivalled in teaching +them to jump. + +Though seldom practised, there is no better system in all undertakings +than "to begin with the beginning," and an Irish horse-breaker is so +persuaded of this great elementary truth that he never asks the colt to +attempt three feet till it has become thoroughly master of two. With a +cavesson rein, a handful of oats, and a few yards of waste ground behind +the potato-ground or the pig-styes, he will, by dint of skill and +patience, turn the most blundering neophyte into an expert and stylish +fencer in about six weeks. As he widens the ditch of his earthwork, he +necessarily heightens its bank, which his simple tools, the spade and +the pipe, soon raise to six or seven feet. When the young one has +learned to surmount this temperately, but with courage, to change on the +top, and deliver itself handsomely, with the requisite fling and +freedom, on the far side, he considers it sufficiently advanced to take +into the fields, where he leads it forthwith, leaving behind him the +spade, but holding fast to the corn, the cavesson, and the pipe. Here he +soon teaches his colt to wait, quietly grazing, or staring about, while +he climbs the fence he intends it to jump, and almost before the long +rein can be tightened it follows like a dog, to poke its nose in his +hand for the few grains of oats it expects as a reward. + +Some breakers drive their pupils from behind, with reins, pulling them +up when they have accomplished the leap; but this is not so good a plan +as necessitating the use of the whip, and having, moreover, a further +disadvantage in accustoming the colt to stop dead short on landing, a +habit productive hereafter of inconvenience to a loose rider taken +unawares! + +When he has taught his horse thus to _walk_ over a country, for two or +three miles on end, the breaker considers it, with reason, thoroughly +trained for leaping, and has no hesitation however low its condition, in +riding it out with the hounds. Who that has hunted in Ireland but can +recall the interest, and indeed amusement, with which he has watched +some mere baby, strangely tackled and uncouthly equipped, sailing along +in the front rank, steered with consummate skill and temper by a +venerable rider who looks sixty on horseback, and at least eighty on +foot. The man's dress is of the shabbiest and most incongruous, his +boots are outrageous, his spurs ill put on, and his hat shows symptoms +of ill-usage in warfare or the chase; but he sits in the saddle like a +workman, and age has no more quenched the courage in his bright Irish +eye, than it has soured the mirth of his temperament, or saddened the +music of his brogue. You know instinctively that he must be a good +fellow and a good sportsman; you cannot follow him for half a mile +without being satisfied that he is a good rider, and you forget, in your +admiration of his beast's performance, your surprise at its obvious +youth, its excessive leanness, and the unusual shabbiness of its +accoutrements. Inspecting these more narrowly, if you can get near +enough, you begin to grudge the sums you have paid Bartley, or Wilkinson +and Kidd, for the neat turn-out you have been taught to consider +indispensable to success. You see that a horse may cross a dangerous +country speedily and in safety, though its saddle be pulpy and +weather-stained, with unequal stirrup-leathers, and only one girth; +though its bridle be a Pelham, _with_ a noseband, and _without_ a +curb-chain, while one rein seems most untrustworthy, and the other, for +want of a buckle, has its ends tied in a knot. And yet, wherever the +hounds go, thither follow this strangely-equipped pair. They arrive at a +seven-foot bank, defended by a wide and, more forbidding still, an +enormously deep ditch on this side and with nothing apparently but blue +sky on the other. While the man utters an exclamation that seems a +threat, a war-cry, and a shout of triumph combined, the horse springs to +the summit, perches like a bird, and disappears buoyantly into space as +if furnished, indeed, with wings, that it need only spread to fly away. +They come to a stone-gap, as it is termed; neither more nor less than a +disused egress, made up with blocks of granite into a wall about five +feet high, and the young one, getting close under it, clears the whole +out of a trot, with the elasticity and the very action of a deer. +Presently some frightful chasm has to be encountered, wide enough for a +brook, deep enough for a ravine, boggy of approach, faced with stone, +and offering about as awkward an appearance as ever defeated a good man +on his best hunter and bade him go to look for a better place. + +Our friend in the bad hat, who knows what he is about, rides at this +"yawner" a turn slower than would most Englishmen, and with a lighter +hand on his horse's mouth, though his legs and knees are keeping the +pupil well into its bridle, and, should the latter want to refuse, or +"renage," as they say in Ireland, a disgrace of which it has not the +remotest idea, there is a slip of ground-ash in the man's fingers ready +to administer "a refresher" on its flank. "Did ye draw now?" asks an +Irishman when his friend is describing how he accomplished some +extraordinary feat in leaping, and the expression, derived from an +obsolete custom of sticking the cutting-whip upright in the boot, so +that it has come to mean punishment from that instrument, is nearly +always answered--"I did _not_!" Light as a fairy, our young, but +experienced hunter dances down to the gulf, and leaves it behind with +scarce an effort, while an unwashed hand bestows its caress on the +reeking neck that will hereafter thicken prodigiously in some Saxon +stable on a proper allowance of corn. If you are riding an Irish horse, +you cannot do better than imitate closely every motion of the pair in +front. If not, you will be wise, I think, to turn round and go home. + +Presently we will hope, for the sake of the neophyte, whose condition +is by no means on a par with his natural powers, the hounds either kill +their fox, or run him to ground, or lose, or otherwise account for him, +thus affording a few minutes' repose for breathing and conversation. +"It's an intrickate country," observes some brother-sportsman with just +such another mount to the veteran I have endeavoured to describe; "and +will that be the colt by Chitchat out of Donovan's mare? Does he 'lep' +well now?" he adds with much interest. "The beautifullest ever ye see!" +answers his friend, and nobody who has witnessed the young horse's +performances can dispute the justice of such a reply. It is not +difficult to understand that hunters so educated and so ridden in a +country where every leap requires power, courage, and the exercise of +much sagacity, should find little difficulty in surmounting such +obstacles as confront them on this side of the Channel. It is child's +play to fly a Leicestershire fence, even with an additional rail, for a +horse that has been taught his business amongst the precipitous banks +and fathomless ditches of Meath or Kildare. If the ground were always +sound and the hills somewhat levelled, these Irish hunters would find +little to stop them in Leicestershire from going as straight as their +owners dared ride. Practice at walls renders them clever timber-jumpers, +they have usually the spring and confidence that make nothing of a +brook, and their careful habit of preparing for something treacherous on +the landing side of every leap prevents their being taken unawares by +the "oxers" and doubles that form such unwelcome exceptions to the usual +run of impediments throughout the shires. There is something in the +expression of their very ears while we put them at their fences, that +seems to say, "It's a good trick enough, and would take in most horses, +but my mother taught me a thing or two in Connemara, and you don't come +over me!" Unfortunately the Shires, as they are called _par excellence_, +the Vale of Aylesbury, a perfect wilderness of grass, and indeed all the +best hunting districts, ride very deep nine seasons out of ten, so that +the Irish horse, accustomed to a sound lime-stone soil and an unfurrowed +surface in his own green island, being moreover usually much wanting in +condition, feels the added labour, and difference of action required, +severely enough. It is proverbial that a horse equal to fourteen stone +in Ireland is only up to thirteen in Leicestershire, and English +purchasers must calculate accordingly. + +But if some prize-taker at the Dublin Horse Show, or other ornament of +that land which her natives call the "first flower of the earth and +first gem of the sea," should disappoint you a little when you ride him +in November from Ranksborough, the Coplow, Crick, Melton-Spinney, +Christmas-Gorse, Great-Wood, or any other favourite covert in one of our +many good hunting countries, do not therefore despond. If he fail in +deep ground, or labour on ridge and furrow, remember he possesses this +inestimable merit that _he can go the shortest way_! Because the fence +in front is large, black, and forbidding, you need not therefore send +him at it a turn faster than usual; he is accustomed to spring _from his +back_, and cover large places out of a trot. If you ride your own line +to hounds, it is no slight advantage thus to have the power of +negotiating awkward corners, without being "committed to them" fifty +yards off, unable to pull up should they prove impracticable; and the +faculty of "jumping at short notice," on this consideration alone, I +conceive to be one of the choicest qualities a hunter can possess. Also, +even in the most favoured and flying of the "grass countries," many +fences require unusual steadiness and circumspection. If they are to be +done at all, they can only be accomplished by creeping, sometimes even +_climbing_ to the wished-for side. The front rank itself will probably +shirk these unaccustomed obstacles with cordial unanimity, leaving them +to be triumphantly disposed of by your new purchase from Kildare. He +pokes out his nose, as if to inspect the depth of a possible interment, +and it is wise to let him manage it all his own way. You give him his +head, and the slightest possible kick in the ribs. With a cringe of his +powerful back and quarters, a vigorous lift that seems to reach +two-thirds of the required distance, a second spring, apparently taken +from a twig weak enough to bend under a bird, that covers the remainder, +a scramble for foothold, a half stride and a snort of satisfaction, the +whole is disposed of, and you are alone with the hounds. + +Though, under such circumstances, these seem pretty sure to run to +ground or otherwise disappoint you within half-a-mile, none the less +credit is due to your horse's capabilities, and you vow next season to +have nothing but Irish nags in your stable, resolving for the future to +ride straighter than you have ever done before. + +But if you are so well pleased now with your promising Patlander, what +shall you think of him this time next year, when he has had twelve +months of your stud-groom's stable-management, and consumed ten or a +dozen quarters of good English oats? Though you may have bought him as a +six-year old, he will have grown in size and substance, even in height, +and will not only look, but feel up to a stone more weight than you ever +gave him credit for. He can jump when he is blown _now_, but he will +never be blown _then_. Condition will teach him to laugh at the deep +ground, while his fine shoulders and true shape will enable him, after +the necessary practice, to travel across ridge and furrow without a +lurch. He will have turned out a rattling good horse, and you will never +grudge the cheque you wrote, nor the punch you were obliged to drink, +before his late proprietor would let you make him your own. + +Gold and whisky, in large quantities and judiciously applied, may no +doubt buy the best horses in Ireland. But a man must know where to look +for them, and even in remote districts, will sometimes be disappointed +to find that the English dealers have forestalled him. Happily, there +are so many good horses, perhaps I should say, so few _rank bad ones_, +bred in the country, that from the very sweepings and leavings of the +market, one need not despair of turning up a trump. A hunter is in so +far like a wife, that experience alone will prove whether he is or is +not good for nothing. Make and shape, in either case, may be perfect, +pedigree unimpeachable, and manners blameless, but who is to answer for +temper, reflection, docility, and the generous staying power that +accepts rough and smooth, ups and downs, good and evil, without a +struggle or a sob? When we have tried them, we find them out, and can +only make the best of our disappointment, if they do not fully come up +to our expectations. + +There is many a good hunter, particularly in a rich man's stable, that +never has a chance of proving its value. With three or four, we know +their form to a pound; with a dozen, season after season goes by without +furnishing occasion for the use of all, till some fine scenting day, +after mounting a friend, we are surprised to learn that the flower of +the whole stud has hitherto been esteemed but a moderate animal, only +fit to carry the sandwiches, and bring us home. + +I imagine, notwithstanding all we have heard and read concerning the +difficulty of buying Irish horses in their own country, that there are +still scores of them in Cork, Limerick, and other breeding districts, as +yet unpromised and unsold. The scarcity of weight-carriers is +indisputable, but can we find them here? The "light man's horse," to fly +under sixteen stone, is a "black swan" everywhere, and if _not_ "a light +man's horse," that is to say, free, flippant, fast, and well-bred, he +will never give his stalwart rider thorough satisfaction; but in +Ireland, far more plentifully than in England, are still to be found +handsome, clever, hunting-like animals fit to carry thirteen stone, and +capital jumpers at reasonable prices, varying from one to two hundred +pounds. The latter sum, particularly if you had it with you in +_sovereigns_, would in most localities insure the "pick of the basket," +and ten or twenty of the coins thrown back for luck. + +I have heard it objected to Irish hunters, that they are so accustomed +to "double" all their places, as to practise this accomplishment even at +those flying fences of the grazing districts which ought to be taken in +the stride, and that they require fresh tuition before they can be +trusted at the staked-and-bound or the bullfinch, lest, catching their +feet in the growers as in a net, they should be tumbled headlong to the +ground. I can only say that I have been well and safely carried by many +of them on their first appearance in Leicestershire, as in other English +countries, that they seemed intuitively to apprehend the character of +the fences they had to deal with, and that, although being mortal, they +could not always keep on their legs, I cannot remember one of them +giving me a fall _because_ he was an Irish horse! + +How many their nationality has saved me, I forbear to count, but I am +persuaded that the careful tuition undergone in youth, and their varied +experience when sufficiently advanced to follow hounds over their native +country, imparts that facility of powerful and safe jumping, which is +one of the most important qualities among the many that constitute a +hunter. + +They possess also the merit of being universally well-bred. This is an +advantage no sportsman will overlook who likes to be near hounds while +they run, but objects to leading, driving, or perhaps _pushing_ his +horse home. Till within a few years, there was literally _no_ cart-horse +blood in Ireland. The "black-drop" of the ponderous Clydesdale remained +positively unknown, and although the Suffolk Punch has been recently +introduced, he cannot yet have sufficiently tainted the pedigrees of the +country, to render us mistrustful of a golden-coated chestnut, with a +round barrel and a strong back. + +No, their horses if not quite "clean-bred," as the Irish themselves call +it, are at least of illustrious parentage on both sides a few +generations back, and this high descent cannot but avail them, when +called on for long-continued exertion, particularly at the end of the +day. + +Juvenal, hurling his scathing satire against the patricians of his +time, drew from the equine race a metaphor to illustrate the superiority +of merit over birth. However unanswerable in argument, he was, I think, +wrong in his facts. Men and women are to be found of every parentage, +good, bad, and indifferent; but with horses, there is more in race than +in culture, and for the selection of these noble animals at least, I can +imagine no safer guide than the aristocratic maxim, "Blood will tell!" + + + + +CHAPTER X. + +THOROUGH-BRED HORSES. + + +I have heard it affirmed, though I know not on what authority, that if +we are to believe the hunting records of the last hundred years, in all +runs so severe and protracted as to admit of only one man getting to the +finish, this exceptional person was in _every_ instance, riding an old +horse, a thorough-bred horse, and a horse under fifteen-two! + +Perhaps on consideration, this is a less remarkable statement than it +appears. That the survivor was an old horse, means that he had many +years of corn and condition to pull him through; that he was a little +horse, infers he carried a light weight, but that he was a thorough-bred +horse seems to me a reasonable explanation of the whole. + +"The thorough-bred ones never stop," is a common saying among +sportsmen, and there are daily instances of some high-born steed who can +boast + + "His sire from the desert, his dam from the north," + +galloping steadily on, calm and vigorous, when the country behind him is +dotted for miles with hunters standing still in every field. + +It is obvious that a breed, reared expressly for racing purposes, must +be the fastest of its kind. A colt considered good enough to be "put +through the mill" on Newmarket Heath, or Middleham Moor, whatever may be +his shortcomings in the select company he finds at school, cannot but +seem "a flyer," when in after-life he meets horses, however good, that +have neither been bred nor trained for the purpose of galloping a single +mile at the rate of an express train. While these are at speed he is +only cantering, and we need not therefore be surprised that he can keep +cantering on after they are reduced to a walk. + +In the hunting-field, "what kills is the pace." When hounds can make it +good enough they kill their fox, when horses _cannot_ it kills _them_, +and for this reason alone, if for no other, I would always prefer that +my hunters should be quite thorough-bred. + +Though undoubtedly the best, I cannot affirm, however, that they are +always the _pleasantest_ mounts; far from it, indeed, just at first, +though subsequent superiority makes amends for the little eccentricities +of gait and temper peculiar to pupils from the racing-stable in their +early youth. + +An idle, lurching mover, rather narrow before the saddle, with great +power of back and loins, a habit of bearing on its rider's hand, one +side to its mouth, and a loose neck, hardly inspires a careful man with +the confidence necessary for enjoyment; coming away from Ranksborough, +for instance, down-hill, with the first fence leaning towards him, very +little room, his horse too much extended, going on its shoulders, and +getting the better of him at every stride! + +But this is an extreme case, purposely chosen to illustrate at their +worst, the disadvantages of riding a thorough-bred horse. + +It is often our own fault, when we buy one of these illustrious +cast-offs, that our purchase so disappoints us after we have got it +home. Many men believe that to carry them through an exhausting run, +such staying powers are required as win under high weights and at long +distances on the turf. + +Their selection, therefore, from the racing-stable, is some young one +of undeniably stout blood, that when "asked the question" for the first +time, has been found too slow to put in training. They argue with +considerable show of reason, that it will prove quite speedy enough for +a hunter, but they forget that though a fast horse is by no means +indispensable to the chase, a _quick_ one is most conducive to enjoyment +when we are compelled to jump all sorts of fences out of all sorts of +ground. + +Now a yearling, quick enough on its legs to promise a turn of speed, is +pretty sure to be esteemed worth training, nor will it be condemned as +useless, till its distance is found to be just short of half-a-mile. In +plain English, when it fails under the strain on wind and frame, of +galloping at its very best, eight hundred and seventy yards, and "fades +to nothing" in the next ten. + +Now this collapse is really more a question of speed than stamina. There +is a want of reach or leverage somewhere, that makes its rapid action +too laborious to be lasting, but there is no reason why the animal that +comes short of five furlongs on the trial-ground, should not hold its +own in front, for five miles of a steeple-chase, or fifteen of a run +with hounds. + +These, in fact, are the so-called "weeds" that win our cross-country +races, and when we reflect on the pace and distance of the Liverpool, +four miles and three-quarters run in something under eleven minutes, at +anything but feather-weights, and over all sorts of fences, we cannot +but admire the speed, gallantry, and endurance, the essentially _game_ +qualities of our English horse. And here I may observe that a good +steeple-chaser, properly sobered and brought into his bridle, is one of +the pleasantest hunters a man can ride, particularly in a flying +country. He is sure to be able to "make haste" in all sorts of ground, +while the smooth, easy stride that wins between the flags is invaluable +through dirt. He does not lose his head and turn foolish, as do many +good useful hunters, when bustled along for a mile or two at something +like racing pace. Very quick over his fences, his style of jumping is no +less conducive to safety than despatch, while his courage is sure to be +undeniable, because the slightest tendency to refuse would have +disqualified him for success in his late profession, wherein also, he +must necessarily have learnt to be a free and brilliant water-jumper. + +Indeed you may always take _two_ liberties with a steeple-chase horse +during a run (not more). The first time you squeeze him, he thinks, "Oh! +this is the brook!" and putting on plenty of steam, flings himself as +far as ever he can. The second, he accepts your warning with equal good +will. "All right!" he seems to answer, "This is the brook, coming home!" +but if you try the same game a third time, I cannot undertake to say +what may happen, you will probably puzzle him exceedingly, upset his +temper, and throw him out of gear for the day. + +We have travelled a long way, however, from our original subject, +tuition of the thorough-bred for the field, or perhaps I should call it +the task of turning a bad race-horse into a good hunter. + +Like every other process of education this requires exceeding +perseverance, and a patience not to be overcome. The irritation of a +moment may undo the lessons of a week, and if the master forgets +himself, you may be sure the pupil will long remember which of the two +was in fault. Never begin a quarrel if it can possibly be avoided, +because, when war is actually declared, you must fight it out to the +bitter end, and if you are beaten, you had better send your horse to +Tattersall's, for you will never be master again. + +Stick to him till he does what you require, trusting, nevertheless, +rather to time than violence, and if you can get him at last to obey you +of his own free will, without knowing why, I cannot repeat too often, +you will have won the most conclusive of victories. + +When the late Sir Charles Knightley took Sir Marinel out of training, +and brought him down to Pytchley, to teach him the way he should go (and +the way of Sir Charles over a country was that of a bird in the air), he +found the horse restive, ignorant, wilful, and unusually averse to +learning the business of a hunter. The animal, was, however, well worth +a little painstaking, and his owner, a perfect centaur in the saddle, +rode him out for a lesson in jumping the first day the hounds remained +in the kennel. At two o'clock, as his old friend and contemporary, Mr. +John Cooke informed me, he came back, having failed to get the rebel +over a single fence. "But I have told them not to take his saddle off," +said Sir Charles, sitting down to a cutlet and a glass of Madeira, +"after luncheon I mean to have a turn at him again!" + +So the baronet remounted and took the lesson up where he had left off. +Nerve, temper, patience, the strongest seat, and the finest hands in +England, could not but triumph at last, and this thorough-bred pair came +home at dinner-time, having larked over all the stiffest fences in the +country, with perfect unanimity and good will. Sir Marinel, and +Benvolio, also a thorough-bred horse, were by many degrees, Sir Charles +has often told me, the best hunters he ever had. + +Shuttlecock too, immortalized in the famous Billesdon-Coplow poem, when + + "Villiers esteemed it a serious bore, + That no longer could Shuttlecock fly as before," + +was a clean thorough-bred horse, fast enough to have made a good figure +on the race-course, but with a rooted disinclination to jump. + +That king of horsemen, the grandfather of the present Lord Jersey, whom +I am proud to remember having seen ride fairly away from a whole +Leicestershire field, over a rough country not far from Melton, at +seventy-three, told me that this horse, though it turned out eventually +one of his safest and boldest fencers, at the end of six weeks' tuition +would not jump the leaping-bar the height of its own knees! His +lordship, however, who was blessed in perfection, with the sweet temper, +as with the personal beauty and gallant bearing of his race, neither +hurried nor ill-used it, and the time spent on the animal's education, +though somewhat wearisome, was not thrown away. + +Mr. Gilmour's famous _Vingt-et-un_, the best hunter, he protests, by a +great deal that gentleman ever possessed, was quite thorough-bred. +Seventeen hands high, but formed all over in perfect proportion to this +commanding frame, it may easily be imagined that the power and stride of +so large an animal made light of ordinary obstacles, and I do not +believe, though it may sound an extravagant assertion, there was a fence +in the whole of Leicestershire that could have stopped _Vingt-et-un_ and +his rider, on a good scenting day some few years ago. Such men and such +horses ought never to grow old. + +Mr. William Cooke, too, owned a celebrated hunter called Advance, of +stainless pedigree, as was December, so named from being foaled on the +last day of that month, a premature arrival that lost him his year for +racing purposes by twenty-four hours, and transferred the colt to the +hunting-stables. Mr. Cooke rode nothing but this class, nor indeed could +any animal less speedy than a race-horse, sustain the pace he liked to +go. + +Whitenose, a beautiful animal that the late Sir Richard Sutton affirmed +was not only the best hunter he ever owned, but that he ever saw or +heard of, and on whose back he is painted in Sir F. Grant's spirited +picture of the Cottesmore Meet, was also quite thorough-bred. When Sir +Richard hunted the Burton country, Whitenose carried him through a run +so severe in pace and of such long duration, that not another horse got +to the end, galloping, his master assured me, steadily on without a +falter, to the last. By the way, he was then of no great age, and nearer +sixteen hands than fifteen-two! This was a very easy horse to ride, and +could literally jump anything he got his nose over. A picture to look +at, with a coat like satin, the eyes of a deer, and the truest action in +his slow as in his fast paces, he has always been my ideal of perfection +in a hunter. + +But it would be endless to enumerate the many examples I can recall of +the thorough-bred's superiority in the hunting-field. Those I have +mentioned belong to a by-gone time, but a man need not look very +narrowly into any knot of sportsmen at the present day, particularly +_after_ a sharpish scurry in deep ground, before his eye rests on the +thin tail, and smoothly turned quarters, that need no gaudier blazon to +attest the nobility of their descent. + +If you mean, however, to ride a thorough-bred one, and choose to _make_ +him yourself, do not feel disappointed that he seems to require more +time and tuition than his lower-born cousins, once and twice removed. + +In the first place you will begin by thinking him wanting in courage! +Where the half-bred one, eager, flurried, and excited, rushes wildly at +an unaccustomed difficulty, your calmer gentleman proceeds deliberately +to examine its nature, and consider how he can best accomplish his task. +It is not that he has less valour, but more discretion! In the +monotonous process of training, he has acquired, with other tiresome +tricks, the habit of doing as little as he can, in the different paces, +walk, canter, and gallop, of which he has become so weary. Even the +excitement of hunting till hounds _really_ run, hardly dissipates his +aristocratic lethargy, but only get him in front for one of those +scurries that, perhaps twice in a season turn up a fox in twenty +minutes, and if you _dare_ trust him, you will be surprised at the +brilliant performance of your idle, negligent, wayward young friend. He +bends kindly to the bridle he objected to all the morning, he tucks his +quarters in, and _scours_ through the deep ground like a hare, he slides +over rather than jumps his fences, with the easy swoop of a bird on the +wing, and when everything of meaner race has been disposed of a field or +two behind, he trots up to some high bit of timber, and leaps it +gallantly without a pause, though only yesterday he would have turned +round to kick at it for an hour! + +Still, there are many chances against your having such an opportunity +as this. Most days the hounds do _not_ run hard. When they do, you are +perhaps so unfortunate as to lose your start, and finally, should +everything else be in your favour, it is twenty to one you are riding +the wrong horse! + +Therefore, the process of educating your young one, must be conducted +on quieter principles, and in a less haphazard way. If you can find a +pack of harriers, and _their master does not object_, there is no better +school for the troublesome or unwilling pupil. But remember, I entreat, +that horsebreaking is prejudicial to sport, and most unwelcome. You are +there on sufferance, take care to interfere with nobody, and above all, +keep wide of the hounds! The great advantage you will find in +harehunting over the wilder pursuit of the fox, is in the circles +described by your game. There is plenty of time to "have it out" with a +refuser, and indeed to turn him backwards and forwards if you please, +over the same leap, without fear of being left behind. The "merry +harriers" are pretty sure to return in a few minutes, and you can begin +again, with as much enthusiasm of man and horse as if you had never been +out of the hunt at all! Whip and spur, I need hardly insist, cannot be +used too sparingly, and anything in the shape of haste or over-anxiety +is prejudicial, but if it induces him to jump in his stride, you may +ride this kind of horse a turn faster at his fences, than any other. You +can trust him not to be in too great a hurry, and it is his nature to +take care of himself. Till he has become thoroughly accustomed to his +new profession, it is well to avoid such places as seem particularly +distasteful and likely to make him rebel. His fine skin will cause him +to be a little shy of thick bullfinches, and his sagacity mistrusts deep +or blind ditches, such as less intelligent animals would run into +without a thought. Rather select rails, or clean upright fences, that he +can compass and understand. Try to imbue him with love for the sport and +confidence in his rider. After a few weeks, he will turn his head from +nothing, and go straighter, as well as faster, and longer than anything +in your stable. + +An old Meltonian used to affirm that the first two articles of his +creed for the hunting season were, "a perfectly pure claret, and +thorough-bred horses." Of the former he was unsparing to his friends, +the latter he used freely enough for himself. Certainly no man gave +pleasanter dinners, or was better carried, and one might do worse than +go to Melton with implicit reliance on these twin accessories of the +chase. All opinions must be agreed, I fancy, about the one, but there +are still many prejudices against the other. Heavy men especially +declare they cannot find thorough-bred horses to carry them, forgetting, +it would seem, that size is no more a criterion of strength than haste +is of speed. The bone of a thorough-bred horse is of the closest and +toughest fibre, his muscles are well developed, and his joints elastic. +Do not these advantages infer power, no less than stamina, and in our +own experience have we not all reason to corroborate the old-fashioned +maxim, "It is action that carries weight"? Nimrod, who understood the +subject thoroughly, observes with great truth, that "'Wind' is strength; +when a horse is blown a mountain or a mole-hill are much the same to +him," and no sportsman who has ever scaled a Highland hill to circumvent +a red-deer, or walk up to "a point," will dispute the argument. What a +game animal it is, that without touch of spur, at the mere pleasure and +caprice of a rider, struggles gallantly on till it drops! + +There used to be a saying in the Prize Ring, that "Seven pounds will +lick the best man in England." This is but a technical mode of stating +that, _caeteris paribus_, weight means strength. Thirty years ago, it was +a common practice at Melton to weigh hunters after they were put in +condition, and sportsmen often wondered to find how the eye had deceived +them, in the comparative tonnage, so to speak, and consequently, the +horse-power of these different conveyances; the thorough-bred, without +exception, proving far heavier than was supposed. + +An athlete, we all know, whether boxer, wrestler, pedestrian, cricketer +or gymnast, looks smaller in his clothes, and larger when he is +stripped. Similarly, on examining in the stable, "the nice little horse" +we admired in the field, it surprises us to find nearly sixteen hands of +height, and six feet of girth, with power to correspond in an animal of +which we thought the only defect was want of size. A thorough-bred one +is invariably a little bigger, and a great deal stronger than he looks. +Of his power to carry weight, those tall, fine men who usually ride so +judiciously and so straight, are not yet sufficiently convinced, +although if you ask any celebrated "welter" to name the best horse he +ever had, he is sure to answer, "Oh! little So-and-so. He wasn't up to +my weight, but he carried me better than anything else in the stable!" +Surely no criterion could be more satisfactory than this! + +It may not be out of place to observe here, as an illustration of the +well-known maxim, "Horses can go in all shapes," that of the three +heaviest men I can call to mind who rode perfectly straight to hounds, +the best hunter owned by each was too long in the back. "Sober Robin," +an extraordinary animal that could carry Mr. Richard Gurney, riding +twenty stone, ahead of all the light-weights, was thus shaped. A famous +bay-horse, nearly as good, belonging to the late Mr. Wood of Brixworth +Hall, an equally heavy man, who when thus mounted, never stopped to open +a gate! had, his owner used to declare, as many vertebrae as a crocodile, +and Colonel Wyndham whose size and superiority in the saddle I have +already mentioned, hesitated a week before he bought his famous black +mare, the most brilliant hunter he ever possessed, because she was at +least three inches too long behind the saddle! + +I remember also seeing the late Lord Mayo ride fairly away from a +Pytchley field, no easy task, between Lilbourne and Cold Ashby, on a +horse that except for its enormous depth of girth, arguing unfailing +wind, seemed to have no good points whatever to catch the eye. It was +tall, narrow, plain-headed, with very bad shoulders, and very long legs, +all this to carry at least eighteen stone; but it was nearly, if not +quite, thorough-bred. + +We need hardly dwell on the advantages of speed and endurance, +inherited from the Arab, and improved, as we fondly hope, almost to +perfection, through the culture of many generations, while even the fine +temper of the "desert-born" has not been so warped by the tricks of +stable-boys, and the severity of turf-discipline, but that a little +forbearance and kind usage soon restores its natural docility. + +In all the qualities of a hunter, the thorough-bred horse, is, I think, +superior to the rest of his kind. You can hardly do better than buy one, +and "make him to your hand," should you be blessed with good nerves, a +fine temper, and a delicate touch, or, wanting these qualities, confide +him to some one so gifted, if you wish to be carried well and +pleasantly, in your love for hunting, perhaps I should rather say, for +the keen and stirring excitement we call "riding to hounds." + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + +RIDING TO FOX-HOUNDS. + + +"If you want to be near hounds," says an old friend of mine who, for a +life-time, has religiously practised what he preaches, "the method is +simple, and seems only common sense--_keep as close to them as ever you +can_!" but I think, though, with his undaunted nerve, and extraordinary +horsemanship, he seems to find it feasible enough, this plan, for most +people, requires considerable management, and no little modification. + +I grant we should never let them slip away from us, and that, in nine +cases out of ten, when defeated by what we choose to call "a bad turn" +it is our own fault. At the same time, there are many occasions on which +a man who keeps his eyes open, and knows how to ride, can save his horse +to some purpose, by travelling inside the pack, and galloping a hundred +yards for their three. + +I say _who keeps his eyes open_, because, in order to effect this +economy of speed and distance, it is indispensable to watch their doings +narrowly, and to possess the experience that tells one when they are +_really_ on the line, and when only flinging forward to regain, with the +dash that is a fox-hound's chief characteristic, the scent they have +over-run. Constant observation will alone teach us to distinguish the +hounds that are right; and to turn with them judiciously, is the great +secret of "getting to the end." + +We must, therefore, be within convenient distance, and to ensure such +proximity, it is most desirable to get a good start. Let us begin at the +beginning, and consider how this primary essential is to be obtained. + +Directly a move is made from the place of meeting, it is well to cut +short all "coffee-house" conversation, even at the risk of neglecting +certain social amenities, and to fix our minds at once on the work in +hand. A good story, though pleasant enough in its way, cannot compare +with a good run, and it is quite possible to lose the one by too earnest +attention to the other. + +A few courteous words previously addressed to the huntsman will ensure +his civility during the day; but this is not a happy moment for +imparting to him your opinion on things in general and his own business +in particular. He has many matters to occupy his thoughts, and does not +care to see you in the middle of his favourites on a strange horse. It +is better to keep the second whip between yourself and the hounds, +jogging calmly on, with a pleasant view of their well-filled backs and +handsomely-carried sterns, taking care to pull up, religiously murmuring +the orthodox caution--"Ware horse!" when any one of them requires to +pause for any purpose. You cannot too early impress on the hunt servants +that you are a lover of the animal, most averse to interfering with it +at all times, and especially in the ardour of the chase. If the size and +nature of the covert will admit, you had better go into it with the +hounds, and on this occasion, but no other, I think it is permissible to +make use of the huntsman's pilotage at a respectful distance. Where +there are foxes there is game, where game, riot. A few young hounds must +come out with every pack, and the _rate_ or _cheer_ of your leader will +warn you whether their opening music means a false flourish or a welcome +find. Also where he goes you can safely follow, and need have no +misgivings that the friendly hand-gate for which he is winding down some +tortuous ride will be nailed up. + +Besides, though floundering in deep, sloughy woodlands entails +considerable labour on your horse, it is less distressing than that +gallop of a mile or two at speed which endeavours, but usually fails, to +make amends for a bad start; whereas, if you get away on good terms, you +can indulge him with a pull at the first opportunity, and those scenting +days are indeed rare on which hounds run many fields without at least a +hover, if not a check. + +Some men take their station outside the covert, down wind, in a +commanding position, so as to hear every turn of the hounds, secure a +front place for the sport, and--head the fox! + +But we will suppose all such difficulties overcome; that a little care, +attention, and common sense have enabled you to get away on good terms +with the pack; and that you emerge not a bowshot off, while they stream +across the first field with a dash that brings the mettle to your heart +and the blood to your brain. Do not, therefore, lose your head. It is +the characteristic of good manhood to be physically calm in proportion +to moral excitement. Remember there are two occasions in chase when the +manner of hounds is not to be trusted. On first coming away with their +fox, and immediately before they kill him, the steadiest will lead you +to believe there is a burning scent and that they cannot make a mistake. +Nevertheless, hope for the best, set your horse going, and if, as you +sail over, or crash through, the first fence, you mark the pack driving +eagerly on, drawn to a line at either end by the pace, harden your +heart, and thank your stars. It is all right, you may lay odds, you are +in for a really good thing! + +I suppose I need hardly observe that the laws of fox-hunting forbid you +to follow hounds by the very obvious process of galloping in their +track. Nothing makes them so wild, to use the proper term, as "riding on +their line;" and should you be ignorant enough to attempt it, you are +pretty sure to be told _where_ you are driving them, and desired to go +there yourself! + +No; you must keep one side or the other, but do not, if you can help +it, let the nature of the obstacles to be encountered bias your choice. +Ride for ground as far as possible when the foothold is good; the fences +will take care of themselves; but let no advantages of sound turf, nor +even open gates, tempt you to stray more than a couple of hundred yards +from the pack. At that distance a bad turn can be remedied, and a good +one gives you leisure to pull back into a trot. Remember, too, that it +is the nature of a fox, and we are now speaking of fox-hunting, to +travel down wind; therefore, as a general rule, keep to leeward of the +hounds. Every bend they make ought to be in your favour; but, on the +other hand should they chance to turn up wind, they will begin to run +very hard, and this is a good reason for never letting them get, so to +speak, out of your reach. I repeat, as a _general rule_, but by no means +without exception. In Leicestershire especially, foxes seem to scorn +this fine old principle, and will make their point with a stiff breeze +blowing in their teeth; but on such occasions they do not usually mean +to go very far, and the gallant veteran, with his white tag, that gives +you the run to be talked of for years, is almost always a wind-sinker +from wold or woodland in an adjoining hunt. + +Suppose, however, the day is perfectly calm, and there seems no +sufficient reason to prefer one course to the other, should we go to +right or left? This is a matter in which neither precept nor personal +experience can avail. One man is as sure to do right as the other to do +wrong. There is an intuitive perception, more animal than human, of what +we may call "the line of chase," with which certain sportsmen are gifted +by nature, and which, I believe, would bring them up at critical points +of the finest and longest runs if they came out hunting in a gig. This +faculty, where everything else is equal, causes A to ride better than B, +but is no less difficult to explain than the instinct that guides an +Indian on the prairie or a swallow across the sea. It counsels the lady +in her carriage, or the old coachman piloting her children on their +ponies, it enables the butcher to come up on his hack, the first-flight +man to save his horse, and above all, the huntsman to kill his fox. + +The Duke of Beaufort possesses it in an extraordinary degree. When so +crippled by gout, or reduced by suffering as to be unable to keep the +saddle over a fence, he seems, even in strange countries, to see no less +of the sport than in old days, when he could ride into every field with +his hounds. And I do believe that now, in any part of Gloucestershire, +with ten couple of "the badger-pyed" and a horn, he could go out and +kill his fox in a Bath-chair! + +Perhaps, however, his may be an extreme case. No man has more +experience, few such a natural aptitude and fondness for the sport. Lord +Worcester, too, like his father, has shown how an educated gentleman, +with abilities equal to all exigencies of a high position that affords +comparatively little leisure for the mere amusements of life, can excel, +in their own profession, men who have been brought up to it from +childhood, whose thoughts and energies, winter and summer, morning, +noon, and night, are concentrated on the business of the chase. + +This knack of getting to hounds then--should we consider genius or +talent too strong terms to use for proficiency in field sports--while a +most valuable quality to everybody who comes out hunting, is no less +rare than precious. If we have it we are to be congratulated and our +horses still more, but if, like the generality of men, we have it _not_, +let us consider how far common sense and close attention will supply the +want of a natural gift. + +It was said of an old friend of mine, the keenest of the keen, that he +always rode as if he had never seen a run before, and should never see a +run again! This, I believe, is something of the feeling with which we +ought to be possessed, impelling us to take every legitimate advantage +and to throw no possible chance away. It cannot be too often repeated +that judicious choice of ground is the very first essential for success. +Therefore the hunting-field has always been considered so good a school +for cavalry officers. There seems no limit to the endurance of a horse +in travelling over a hard and tolerably level surface, even under heavy +weight, but we all know the fatal effect of a very few yards in a +steam-ploughed field, when the gallant animal sinks to its hocks every +stride. Keep an eye forward then, and shape your course where the +foothold is smooth and sound. In a hilly country choose the sides of the +slopes, above, rather than below, the pack, for, if they turn away from +you, it is harder work to gallop up, than down. In the latter case, and +for this little hint I am indebted to Lord Wilton, do not increase your +speed so as to gain in distance, rather preserve the same regular pace, +so as to save in wind. Descending an incline at an easy canter, and held +well together, your horse is resting almost as if he were standing +still. It is quite time enough when near the bottom to put on a spurt +that will shoot him up the opposite rise. + +On the grass, if you _must_ cross ridge-and-furrow, take it a-slant, +your horse will pitch less on his shoulders, and move with greater ease, +while if they lie the right way, by keeping him on the crest, rather +than in the trough of those long parallel rollers, you will ensure firm +ground for his gallop, and a sounder, as well as higher take-off for the +leap, when he comes to his fence. + +I need hardly remind you that in all swampy places, rushes may be +trusted implicitly, and experienced hunters seem as well aware of the +fact as their riders. Vegetable growth, indeed, of any kind has a +tendency to suck moisture into its fibres, and consequently to drain, +more or less, the surface in its immediate vicinity. The deep rides of a +woodland are least treacherous at their edges, and the brink of a brook +is most reliable close to some pollard or alder bush, particularly on +the upper side, as Mr. Bromley Davenport knew better than most people, +when he wrote his thrilling lines:-- + + "Then steady, my young one! the place I've selected + Above the dwarf willow, is sound, I'll be bail; + With your muscular quarters beneath you collected, + Prepare for a rush like the limited mail!" + +But we cannot always be on the grass, nor, happily are any of us +obliged, often in a life time, to ride at the Whissendine! + +In ploughed land, choose a wet furrow, for the simple reason that water +would not stand in it unless the bottom were hard, but if you cannot +find one, nor a foot-path, nor a cart-track trampled down into a certain +consistency, remember the fable of the hare and the tortoise, pull your +horse back into a trot, and never fear but that you will be able to make +up your leeway when you arrive at better ground. It is fortunate that +the fences are usually less formidable here than in the pastures, and +will admit of creeping into, and otherwise negotiating, with less +expenditure of power, so you may travel pretty safely, and turn at +pleasure, shorter than the hounds. + +There _are_ plough countries, notably in Gloucestershire and Wilts, +that ride light. To them the above remarks in no way apply. Inclosed +with stone walls, if there is anything like a scent, hounds carry such a +head, and run so hard over these districts, that you must simply go as +fast as your horse's pace, and as straight as his courage admits, but if +you have the Duke of Beaufort's dog-pack in front of you, do not be +surprised to find, with their extraordinary dash and enormous stride, +that even on the pick of your stable, ere you can jump into one field +they are half-way across the next. + +In hunting, as in everything else, compensation seems the rule of daily +life, and the very brilliancy of the pace affords its own cure. Either +hounds run into their fox, or, should he find room to turn, flash over +the scent, and bring themselves to a check. You will not then regret +having made play while you could, and although no good sportsman, and, +indeed, no kind-hearted man, would overtax the powers of the most +generous animal in creation, still we must remember that we came out for +the purpose of seeing the fun, and unless we can keep near the hounds +while they run we shall lose many beautiful instances of their sagacity +when brought to their noses, and obliged to hunt. + +There is no greater treat to a lover of the chase than to watch a pack +of high-bred fox-hounds that have been running hard on pasture, brought +suddenly to a check on the dusty sun-dried fallows. After dashing and +snatching in vain for a furlong or so, they will literally quarter their +ground like pointers, till they recover the line, every yard of which +they make good, with noses down and sterns working as if from the +concentrated energy of all their faculties, till suspicion becomes +certainty, and they lay themselves out once more, in the uncontrolled +ecstasy of pursuit. + +Now if you are a mile behind, you miss all these interesting incidents, +and lose, as does your disappointed hunter, more than half the amusement +you both came out to enjoy. The latter too, works twice as hard when +held back in the rear, as when ridden freely and fearlessly in front. +The energy expended in fighting with his rider would itself suffice to +gallop many a furlong and leap many a fence, while the moral effect of +disappointment is most disheartening to a creature of such a +highly-strung nervous organisation. Look at the work done by a +huntsman's horse before the very commencement of some fine run, the +triumphant conclusion of which depends so much on his freshness at the +finish, and yet how rarely does he succumb to the labour of love +imposed; but then he usually leaves the covert in close proximity to his +friends the hounds, every minute of his toil is cheered by their +companionship, and, having no leeway to make up he need not be overpaced +when they are running their hardest, while he finds a moment's leisure +to recover himself when they are hunting their closest and best. In +those long and severe chases, to which, unhappily, two or three horses +may sometimes be sacrificed, the "first flight" are not usually +sufferers. Death from exhaustion is more likely to be inflicted cruelly, +though unwittingly on his faithful friend and comrade, by the +injudicious and hesitating rider, who has neither decision to seize a +commanding position in front, nor self-denial to be satisfied with an +unassuming retirement in rear. His valour and discretion are improperly +mixed, like bad punch, and fatal is the result. A timely pull means +simply the difference between breathlessness and exhaustion, but this +opportune relief is only available for him who knows exactly how far +they brought it, and where the hounds flashed beyond the line of their +fox at a check. + +I remember in my youth, alas! long ago, "the old sportsman"--a +character for whom, I fear, we entertained in my day less veneration +than we professed--amongst many inestimable precepts was fond of +propounding the following:-- + +"Young gentleman, nurse your hunter carefully at the beginning of a run, +and when the others are tired he will enable you to see the end." + +[Illustration: Page 193.] + +Now with all due deference to the old sportsman, I take leave to differ +with him _in toto_. By nursing one's horse, I conclude he meant riding +him at less than half-speed during that critical ten minutes when hounds +run their very hardest and straightest. If we follow this cautious +advice, who is to solve the important question, "Which way are they +gone?" when we canter anxiously up to a sign-post where four roads meet, +with a fresh and eager horse indeed, but not the wildest notion towards +which point of the compass we should direct his energies? We can but +stop to listen, take counsel of a countryman who unwittingly puts us +wrong, ride to points, speculate on chances, and make up our minds never +to be really on terms with them again! + +No, I think on the contrary, the best and most experienced riders adopt +a very different system. On the earliest intimation that hounds are +"away," they may be observed getting after them with all the speed they +can make. Who ever saw Mr. Portman, for instance, trotting across the +first field when his bitches were well out of covert settling on the +line of their fox?--and I only mention his name because it occurs to me +at the moment, and because, notwithstanding the formidable hills of his +wild country and the pace of his flying pack, he is always present at +the finish, to render them assistance if required, as it often must be, +with a sinking fox. + +"The first blow is half the battle" in many nobler struggles than a +street-brawl with a cad, and the very speed at which you send your horse +along for a few furlongs, if the ground is at all favourable, enables +you to give him a pull at the earliest opportunity, without fear lest +the whole distant panorama of the hunt should fade into space while you +are considering what to do next. + +Not that I mean you to over-mark, or push him for a single stride, +beyond the collected pace at which he travels with ease and comfort to +himself; for remember he is as much your partner as the fairest young +lady ever trusted to your guidance in a ball-room: but I _do_ mean that +you should make as much haste as is compatible with your mutual +enjoyment, and, reflecting on the capricious nature of scent, take the +chance of its failure, to afford you a moment's breathing-time when most +required. + +At all periods of a fox-chase, be careful to _anticipate a check_. +Never with more foresight than when flying along in the ecstasy of a +quick thing, on a brilliant hunter. Keep an eye forward, and scan with +close attention every moving object in front. There you observe a flock +of sheep getting into line like cavalry for a charge--that is where the +fox has gone. Or perhaps a man is ploughing half-a-mile further on; in +all probability this object will have headed him, and on the discretion +with which you ride at these critical moments may depend the performance +of the pack, the difference between "a beautiful turn" and "an unlucky +check." The very rush of your gallop alongside them will tempt +high-mettled hounds into the indiscretion of over-running their scent. +Whereas, if you take a pull at your horse, and give them plenty of room, +they will swing to the line, and wheel like a flock of pigeons on the +wing. + +Always ride, then, to _command_ hounds if you can, but never be tempted, +when in this proud position, to press them, and to spoil your own sport, +with that of every one else. + +If so fortunate as to view him, and near enough to distinguish that it +is the hunted fox, think twice before you holloa. More time will be lost +than gained by getting their heads up, if the hounds are still on the +line, and even when at fault, it is questionable whether they do not +derive less assistance than excitement from the human voice. Much +depends on circumstances, much on the nature of the pack. I will not say +you are never to open your mouth, but I think that if the inmates of our +deaf and dumb asylums kept hounds, these would show sport above the +average, and would seldom go home without blood. Noise is by no means a +necessary concomitant of the chase, and a hat held up, or a quiet +whisper to the huntsman, is of more help to him than the loudest and +clearest view-holloa that ever wakened the dead "from the lungs of John +Peel in the morning." + +We have hitherto supposed that you are riding a good horse, in a good +place, and have been so fortunate as to meet with none of those reverses +that are nevertheless to be expected on occasion, particularly when +hounds run hard and the ground is deep. The best of hunters may fall, +the boldest of riders be defeated by an impracticable fence. Hills, +bogs, a precipitous ravine, or even an unlucky turn in a wood may place +you at a mile's disadvantage, almost before you have realised your +mistake, and you long for the wings of an eagle, while cursing the +impossibility of taking back so much as a single minute from the past. +It seems so easy to ride a run when it is over! + +But do not therefore despair. Pull yourself well together, no less than +your horse. Keep steadily on at a regulated pace, watching the movements +of those who are with the hounds, and ride inside them, every bend. No +fox goes perfectly straight--he must turn sooner or later--and when the +happy moment arrives be ready to back your luck, and _pounce_! But here, +again, I would have your valour tempered with discretion. If your horse +does not see the hounds, be careful how you ride him at such large +places as he would face freely enough in the excitement of their +company. Not one hunter in fifty is really fond of jumping, and we +hardly give them sufficient credit for the good-humour with which they +accept it as a necessity for enjoyment of the sport. Avoid water +especially, unless you have reason to believe the bottom is good, and +you can go in and out. Even under such favourable conditions, look well +to your egress. There is never much difficulty about the entrance, and +do not forget that the middle is often the shallowest, and always the +soundest part of a brook. When tempted therefore to take a horse, that +you know is a bad water-jumper, at this serious obstacle; you are most +likely to succeed, if you only ask him to jump half-way. Should he drop +his hind-legs under the farther bank, he will probably not obtain +foothold to extricate himself, particularly with your weight on his +back. + +We are all panic-stricken, and with reason, at the idea of being +submerged, but we might wade through many more brooks than we usually +suppose. I can remember seeing the Rowsham, generally believed to be +bottomless, forded in perfect safety by half-a-dozen of the finest and +heaviest bullocks the Vale of Aylesbury ever fattened into beef. This, +too, close to a hunting-bridge, put there by Baron Rothschild because of +the depth and treacherous nature of the stream! + +A hard road, however, though to be avoided religiously when enjoying a +good place with hounds, is an invaluable ally on these occasions of +discomfiture and vexation, if it leads in the same direction as the line +of chase. On its firm, unyielding surface your horse is regaining his +wind with every stride. Should a turnpike-gate bar your progress, chuck +the honest fellow a shilling who swings it back and never mind the +change. We hunt on sufferance; for our own sakes we cannot make the +amusement too popular with the lower classes. The same argument holds +good as to feeing a countryman who assists you in any way when you have +a red coat on your back. Reward him with an open hand. He will go to the +public-house and drink "fox-hunting" amongst his friends. It is +impossible to say how many innocent cubs are preserved by such judicious +liberality to die what Charles Payne calls "a natural death." + +And now your quiet perseverance meets its reward. You regain your place +with the hounds and are surprised to find how easily and temperately +your horse, not yet exhausted, covers large flying fences in his stride. +A half-beaten hunter, as I have already observed, will "lob over" high +and wide places if they can be done in a single effort, although +instinct causes him to "cut them very fine," and forbids unnecessary +exertion; but it is "the beginning of the end," and you must not presume +on his game, enduring qualities too long. + +The object of your pursuit, however, is also mortal. By the time you +have tired an honest horse in good condition the fox is driven to his +last resources, and even the hounds are less full of fire than when they +brought him away from the covert. I am supposing, of course, that they +have not changed during the run. You may now save many a furlong by +bringing your common sense into play. What would you do if you were a +beaten fox, and where would you go? Certainly not across the middle of +those large pastures where you could be seen by the whole troop of your +enemies without a chance of shelter or repose. No; you would rather lie +down in this deep, overgrown ditch, sneak along the back of that strong, +thick bullfinch, turn short in the high, double hedgerow, and so hiding +yourself from the spiteful crows that would point you out to the +huntsman, try to baffle alike his experienced intelligence and the +natural sagacity of his hounds. Such are but the simplest of the wiles +practised by this most cunning beast of chase. While observing them, you +need no further distress the favourite who has carried you so well than +is necessary to render the assistance required for finishing +satisfactorily with blood; and here your eyes and ears will be far more +useful than the speed and stamina of your horse. + +Who-whoop! His labours are now over for the day. Do not keep him +standing half-an-hour in the cold, while you smoke a cigar and enlarge +to sympathising ears on his doings, and yours, and theirs, and those of +everybody concerned. Rather jog gently off as soon as a few compliments +and congratulations have been exchanged, and keep him moving at the rate +of about six miles an hour, so that his muscles may not begin to stiffen +after his violent exertions, till you have got him home. Jump off his +honest back, to walk up and down the hills with him as they come. He +well deserves this courtesy at your hands. If you ever go out shooting +you cannot have forgotten the relief it is to put down your gun for a +minute or two. And even from a selfish point of view, there is good +reason for this forbearance in the ease your own frame experiences with +the change of attitude and exercise. If you can get him a mouthful of +gruel, it will recruit his exhausted vitality, as a basin of soup puts +life into a fainting man; but do not tarry more than five or six minutes +for your own luncheon, while he is sucking it in, and the more tired he +seems, remember, the sooner you ought to get him home. + +If he fails altogether, does not attempt to trot, and wavers from side +to side under your weight, put him into the first available shelter, and +make up your mind, however mean the quarters, it is better for him to +stay there all night than in his exhausted condition to be forced back +to his own stable. With thorough ventilation and plenty of coverings, +old sacks, blankets, whatever you can lay hands on, he will take no +harm. Indeed, if you can keep up his circulation there is no better +restorative than the pure cold air that in a cow-shed, or out-house, +finds free admission, to fill his lungs. + +You will lose your dinner perhaps. What matter? You may even have to +sleep out in "the worst inn's worst room," unfed, unwashed, and without +a change of clothes. It is no such penance after all, and surely your +first duty is to the gallant generous animal that would never fail _you_ +at your need, but would gallop till his heart broke, for your mere +amusement and caprice. + +Of all our relations with the dumb creation, there is none in which man +has so entirely the best of it as the one-sided partnership that exists +between the horse and his rider. + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + +RIDING _AT_ STAG-HOUNDS. + + +I have purposely altered the preposition at the heading of this, because +it treats of a method so entirely different from that which I have tried +to describe in the preceding chapter. At the risk of rousing +animadversion from an experienced and scientific majority, I am prepared +to affirm that there is nearly as much intelligence and knowledge of the +animal required to hunt a deer as a fox, but in following the chase of +the larger and higher-scented quadruped there are no fixed rules to +guide a rider in his course, so that if he allows the hounds to get out +of sight he may gallop over any extent of country till dark, and never +hear tidings of them again. Therefore it has been said, one should ride +_to_ fox-hounds, but _at_ stag-hounds, meaning that with the latter, +skill and science are of little avail to retrieve a mistake. + +Deer, both wild and tame, so long as they are fresh, seem perfectly +indifferent whether they run up wind or down, although when exhausted +they turn their heads to the cold air that serves to breathe new life +into their nostrils. Perhaps, if anything, they prefer to feel the +breeze blowing against their sides, but as to this there is no more +certainty than in their choice of ground. Other wild animals go to the +hill; deer will constantly leave it for the vale. I have seen them fly, +straight as an arrow, across a strongly enclosed country, and circle +like hares on an open down. Sometimes they will not run a yard till the +hounds are at their very haunches; sometimes, when closely pressed, they +become stupid with fear, or turn fiercely at bay. "Have we got a good +deer to-day?" is a question usually answered with the utmost confidence, +yet how often the result is disappointment and disgust. Nor is this the +case only in that phase of the sport which may be termed artificial. A +wild stag proudly carrying his "brow, bay, and tray" over Exmoor seems +no less capricious than an astonished hind, enlarged amongst the +brickfields of Hounslow, or the rich pastures that lie outstretched +below Harrow-on-the-Hill. One creature, familiar with every inch of its +native wastes, will often wander aimlessly in a circle before making its +point; the other, not knowing the least where it is bound, will as often +run perfectly straight for miles. + +My own experience of "the calf," as it has been ignominiously termed, is +limited to three packs--Mr. Bissett's, who hunts the perfectly wild +animal over the moorlands of Somerset and North Devon; Baron +Rothschild's, in the Vale of Aylesbury; and Lord Wolverton's +blood-hounds, amongst the combes of Dorsetshire and "doubles" of the +Blackmoor Vale. With her Majesty's hounds I have not been out more than +three or four times in my life. + +Let us take the noble chase of the West country first, as it is followed +in glorious autumn weather through the fairest scenes that ever haunted +a painter's dream; in Horner woods and Cloutsham Ball, over the grassy +slopes of Exmoor, and across the broad expanse of Brendon, spreading its +rich mantle of purple under skies of gold. We could dwell for pages on +the associations connected with such classical names as +Badgeworthy-water, New-Invention, Mountsey Gate, or wooded Glenthorne, +rearing its garlanded brows above the Severn sea. But we are now +concerned in the practical question, how to keep a place with Mr. +Bissett's six-and-twenty-inch hounds running a "warrantable deer" over +the finest scenting country in the world? + +You may ride _at_ them as like a tailor as you please. The ups and +downs of a Devonshire _coombe_ will soon put you in your right place, +and you will be grateful for the most trifling hint that helps you to +spare your horse, and remain on any kind of terms with them, on ground +no less trying to his temper and intelligence than to his wind and +muscular powers. + +Till you attempt to gallop alongside you will hardly believe how hard +the hounds are running. They neither carry such a head, nor dash so +eagerly, I might almost say _jealously_, for the scent as if they were +hunting their natural quarry, the fox. This difference I attribute to +the larger size, and consequently stronger odour, of a deer. Every hound +enjoying his full share, none are tempted to rob their comrades of the +mysterious pleasure, and we therefore miss the quick, sharp turns and +the _drive_ that we are accustomed to consider so characteristic of the +fox-hound. They string, too, in long-drawn line, because of the tall, +bushy heather, necessitating great size and power, through which they +must make their way; but, nevertheless, they keep swinging steadily on, +without a check or hover for many a mile of moorland, showing something +of that fierce indomitable perseverance attributed by Byron to the +wolf-- + + "With his long gallop that can tire + The hound's deep hate and hunter's fire." + +If you had a second Eclipse under you, and rode him fairly with them, +yard for yard, you would stop him in less than twenty minutes! + +Yet old practitioners, notably that prince of sportsmen the Rev. John +Russell, contrive to see runs of many hours' duration without so +entirely exhausting their horses but that they can travel some twenty +miles home across the moor. Such men as Mr. Granville Somerset, the late +Mr. Dene of Barnstaple, Mr. Bissett himself, though weighing twenty +stone, and a score of others--for in the West good sportsmen are the +rule, not the exception--go well from find to finish of these long, +exhausting chases, yet never trespass too far on the generosity and +endurance of the noble animal that carries them to the end. And why? +Because they take pains, use their heads sagaciously, their hands +skilfully, and their heels scarcely at all. To their experience I am +indebted for the following little hints which I have found serviceable +when embarked on those wide, trackless wastes, brown, endless, +undulating, and spacious as the sea. + +There are happily no fences, and the chief obstructions to be defeated, +or rather _negotiated_, are the "combes"--a succession of valleys that +trend upward from the shallow streams to the heathery ridges, narrowing +as they ascend till lost in the level surface of the moor. Never go down +into these until your deer is sinking. So surely as you descend will you +have to climb the opposite rise; rather keep round them towards the top, +watching the hounds while they thread a thousand intricacies of rock, +heather, and scattered copse-wood, so as to meet them when they emerge, +which they will surely do on the upper level, for it is the nature of +their quarry to rise the hill aslant, and seek safety, when pressed, in +its speed across the flat. + +A deer descends these declivities one after another as they come, but it +is for the refreshment of a bath in their waters below, and instinct +prompts it to return without delay to higher ground when thus +invigorated. Only if completely beaten and exhausted, does it become so +confused as to attempt scaling a rise in a direct line. The run is over +then, and you may turn your horse's head to the wind, for in a furlong +or two the game will falter and come down again amongst its pursuers to +stand at bay. + +[Illustration: Page 208.] + +Coast your "combes," therefore, judiciously, and spare your horse; so +shall you cross the heather in thorough enjoyment of the chase till it +leads you perhaps to the grassy swamps of Exmoor, the most plausible +line in the world, over which hounds run their hardest--and now look +out! + +If Exmoor were in Leicestershire, it would be called a bog, and cursed +accordingly, but every country has its own peculiarities, and a North +Devon sportsman more especially, on a horse whose dam, or even grandam, +was bred on the moor, seems to flap his way across it with as much +confidence as a bittern or a curlew. Could I discover how he +accomplished this feat I would tell you, but I can only advise you to +ride his line and follow him yard for yard. + +There are certain sound tracks and pathways, no doubt, in which a horse +does not sink more than fetlock deep, and Mr. Knight, the lord of the +soil, may be seen, on a large handsome thorough-bred hunter, careering +away as close to the pack as he used to ride in the Vale of Aylesbury, +but for a stranger so to presume would be madness, and if he did not +find himself bogged in half a minute, he would stop his horse in half a +mile. + +Choose a pilot then, Mr. Granville Somerset we will say, or one of the +gentlemen I have already named, and stick to him religiously till the +welcome heather is brushing your stirrup-irons once more. On Brendon, +you may ride for yourself with perfect confidence in the face of all +beholders, bold and conspicuous as Dunkery Beacon, but on Exmoor you +need not be ashamed to play follow my leader. Only give him room enough +to fall! + +As, although a full-grown or warrantable stag is quickly found, the +process of separating it from its companions, called "tufting," is a +long business, lasting for hours, you will be wise to take with you a +feed of corn and a rope halter, the latter of which greatly assists in +serving your horse with the former. You will find it also a good plan to +have your saddles previously well stuffed and repaired, lined with +smooth linen. The weather in August is very hot, and your horse will be +many hours under your weight, therefore it is well to guard against a +sore back. Jump off, too, whenever you have the chance; a hunter cannot +but find it a delightful relief to get rid of twelve or thirteen stone +bumping all day against his spine for a minute or two at a time. I have +remarked, however, with some astonishment that the heavier the rider the +more averse he seems to granting this indulgence, and am forced to +suppose his unwillingness to get down proceeds, as my friend Mr. +Grimston says, from a difficulty in getting up again! This gentleman, +however, who, notwithstanding his great weight, has always ridden +perfectly straight to hounds, over the stiffest of grass countries, +obstinately declines to leave the saddle at any time under less +provocation than a complete turn over by the strength of a gate or +stile. + +To mention "the Honourable Robert" brings one by an irresistible +association of ideas into the wide pastures of that grassy paradise +which mortals call the Vale of Aylesbury. Here, under the excellent +management of Sir Nathaniel Rothschild, assisted by his brother Mr. +Leopold, the _carted_ deer is hunted on the most favourable terms, and a +sportsman must indeed be prejudiced who will not admit that "ten mile +points" over grass with one of the handsomest packs of hounds in the +world, are most enjoyable; the object of chase, when the fun is over, +returning to Mentmore, like a gentleman, in his own carriage, +notwithstanding. + +Fred Cox is the picture of a huntsman. Mark Howcott, his whip, fears +nothing in the shape of a fence, and will close with a wicked stag, in +or out of water, as readily as a policeman collars a pickpocket! The +horses are superb, and so they ought to be, for the fences that divide +this grazing district into fields of eighty and a hundred acres grow to +the most formidable size and strength. Unless brilliantly mounted +neither masters nor servants could hold the commanding position through +a run that they always seem to desire. + +In riding to these hounds, as to all others, it is advisable to avoid +the crowd. Many of the hedgerows are double, with a ditch on each side, +and to wait for your turn amongst a hundred horsemen, some too bold, +some too cautious, would entail such delay as must prove fatal with a +good scent. Happily, there are plenty of gates, and a deer preferring +timber to any other leap, usually selects this convenient mode of +transit. Should they be chained, look for a weak place in the fence, +which, being double, will admit of subdividing your leap by two, and +your chance of a fall by ten. + +At first you may be somewhat puzzled on entering a field to find your +way out. I will suppose that in other countries you have been accustomed +to select the easiest place at once in the fence you are approaching, +and to make for it without delay, but across these large fields the +nature of an obstacle deceives your eye. The two contiguous hedges that +form one boundary render it very difficult to determine at a distance +where the easiest place _is_, so you will find it best to follow the +hounds, and take your chance. The deer, like your horse, is a large +quadruped, and, except under unusual circumstances, where one goes the +other can probably follow. + +This, I fear, is a sad temptation to ride on the line of hounds. If you +give way to it, let the whole pack be at least two or three hundred +yards in front, and beware, even then, of tail hounds coming up to join +their comrades. + +Be careful also, never to jump a fence in your stride, till you see the +pack well into the next field. A deer is very apt to drop lightly over a +wall or upright hedge just high enough to conceal it, and then turn +short at a right angle under this convenient screen. It would be painful +to realise your feelings, poised in air over eight or ten couple of +priceless hounds, with a chorus of remonstrances storming in the rear! +It is no use protesting you "Didn't touch them," you "Didn't mean it," +you "Never knew they were there." Better ride doggedly on, over the +largest places you can find, and apologise humbly to everybody at the +first check. + +When a fox goes down to water he means crossing, not so the deer. If at +all tired, or heated, it may stay there for an hour. On such occasions, +therefore, you can take a pull at your horse and your flask too if you +like, while you look for the best way to the other side. When induced to +leave it, however, the animal seems usually so refreshed by its bath, as +to travel a long distance, and on this, as on many other occasions in +stag-hunting, the run seems only beginning, when you and your horse +consider it ought to be nearly over. + +Directly you observe a deer, that has hitherto gone straight, describing +a series of circles, you may think about going home. + +It is tired at last, and will give you no more fun for a month. You +should offer assistance to the men, and, even if it be not accepted, +remain, as a matter of courtesy, to see your quarry properly taken, and +sent back to the paddock in its cart. + +With all stag-hounds, the same rules would seem to apply. Never care to +view it, and above all, unless expressly requested to do so for a +reason, avoid the solecism of "riding the deer." On the mode in which +this sport is conducted depends the whole difference between a wild +exhilarating pastime and a tame uninteresting parade. Though prejudice +will not allow it is the _real_ thing, we cannot but admit the +excellence of the imitation, and a man must possess a more logical mind, +a less excitable temperament, than is usually allotted to sportsmen, who +can remember, while sailing along with hounds running hard over a flying +country, that he is only "trying to catch what he had already," and has +turned a handsome hairy-coated quadruped out of a box for the mere +purpose of putting it in again when the fun is over! + +Follow every turn then, religiously, and with good intent. You came out +expressly to enjoy a gallop, do not allow yourself to be disappointed. +If nerve and horse are good enough, go into every field with them, but, +I intreat you, ride like a sportsman, and give the hounds plenty of +room. + +This last injunction more especially applies to that handsome pack of +black-and-tans with which Lord Wolverton, during the last five or six +seasons, has shown extraordinary sport for the amusement of his +neighbours on the uplands of Dorset and in the green pastures that +enrich the valley of the Stour. These blood-hounds, for such they are, +and of the purest breed, stand seven or eight-and-twenty inches, with +limbs and frames proportioned to so gigantic a stature. Their heads are +magnificent, solemn sagacious eyes, pendent jowls, and flapping ears +that brush away the dew. Thanks to his Lordship's care in breeding, and +the freedom with which he has drafted, their feet are round and their +powerful legs symmetrically straight. A spirited and truly artistic +picture of these hounds in chase, sweeping like a whirlwind over the +downs, by Mr. Goddard, the well-known painter, hangs on Lord Wolverton's +staircase in London, and conveys to his guests, particularly after +dinner, so vivid an idea of their picturesque and even sporting +qualities as I cannot hope to represent with humble pen and ink. + +One could almost fancy, standing opposite this masterpiece, that one +heard _the cry_. Full, sonorous, and musical, it is not extravagant to +compare these deep-mouthed notes with the peal of an organ in a +cathedral. + +Yet they run a tremendous pace. Stride, courage, and _condition_ (the +last essential requiring constant care) enable them to sustain such +speed over the open as can make a good horse look foolish! While, +amongst enclosures, they charge the fences in line, like a squadron of +heavy dragoons. + +Yet for all this fire and mettle in chase, they are sad cowards under +pressure from a crowd. A whip cracked hurriedly, a horse galloping in +their track, even an injudicious _rate_, will make the best of them shy +and sulky for half the day. Only by thorough knowledge of his +favourites, and patient deference to their prejudices, has Lord +Wolverton obtained their confidence, and it is wonderful to mark how his +perseverance is rewarded. While he hunts them they are perfectly handy, +and turn like a pack of harriers; but if an outsider attempts to "cap +them on," or otherwise interfere, they decline to acknowledge him from +the first; and should they be left to his guidance, are quite capable of +going straight home at once, with every mark of contempt. + +In a run, however, their huntsman is seldom wanting. His lordship has an +extraordinary knack of _galloping_, getting across a field with +surprising quickness on every horse he rides, and is not to be turned by +the fence when he reaches it, so that his hounds are rarely placed in +the awkward position of a pack at fault with no one to look to for +assistance. He has acquired, too, considerable familiarity with the +habits of his game, and has a holy horror of going home without it, so +perseveres, when at a loss, through many a long hour of cold hunting, +slotting, scouring the country for information, and other drawbacks to +enjoyment of his chase. As he says himself, "The worst of a deer is, you +can't leave off when you like. Nobody will believe you if you swear it +went to ground!" + +Part of the country in his immediate neighbourhood seems made for +stag-hunting. Large fields, easy slopes, light fences, and light land, +with here and there a hazel copse, bordering a stretch for three or four +miles of level turf, like Launceston Down, or Blandford race-course, +must needs tempt a deer to go straight no less than a horseman, but the +animal, as I have said, is unaccountably capricious, and if we could +search his lordship's diary I believe we should find his best runs have +taken place over a district differing in every respect from the above. + +As soon as the leaves are fallen sufficiently to render the Blackmoor +Vale rideable, it is his greatest pleasure to take the blood-hounds down +to those deep, level, and strongly-enclosed pastures, over which, +notwithstanding the size and nature of the fences, he finds his deer +(usually hinds) run remarkably well, and make extraordinary points. Ten +miles, on the ordnance map, is no unusual distance, and is often +accomplished in little more than an hour. For men who enjoy _riding_ I +can conceive no better fun. Not an acre of plough is to be seen. The +enclosures, perhaps, are rather small, but this only necessitates more +jumping, and the fences may well satisfy the hungriest, or as an +Irishman would say, the _thirstiest_, of competitors! They are not, +however, _quite_ so formidable as they look. To accomplish two blind +ditches, with a bank between, and a hedge thereon, requires indeed +discretion in a horse, and cool determination in its rider, but where +these exist the large leap is divided easily by two, and a good man, who +_means going_, is not often to be _pounded_, even in the Blackmoor Vale. + +Nothing is _quite_ perfect under the sun, not your own best hunter, nor +your wife's last baby, and the river Stour, winding through them in +every direction, somewhat detracts from the merit of these happiest of +hunting-grounds. A good friend to the deer, and a sad hindrance to its +pursuers, it has spoilt many a fine run; but even with this drawback +there are few districts in any part of England so naturally adapted to +the pleasures of the chase. The population is scanty, the countrymen are +enthusiasts, the farmers the best fellows on earth, the climate seems +unusually favourable; from the kindness and courtesy of Sir Richard +Glynn and Mr. Portman, who pursue the _legitimate_ sport over the same +locality, and his own personal popularity, the normal difficulties of +his undertaking are got over in favour of the noble master, and +everybody seems equally pleased to welcome the green plush coats and the +good grey horses in the midst of the black-and-tans. + +If I were sure of a fine morning and a _safe mount_, I would ask for no +keener pleasure than an hour's gallop with Lord Wolverton's blood-hounds +over the Blackmoor Vale. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. + +THE PROVINCES. + + +A distinguished soldier of the present day, formerly as daring and +enthusiastic a rider as ever charged his "oxers" with the certainty of a +fall, was once asked in my hearing by a mild stranger, "Whether he had +been out with the Crawley and Horsham?" if I remember right. + +"No, sir!" was the answer, delivered in a tone that somewhat startled +the querist, "I have never hunted with any hounds in my life but the +Quorn and the Pytchley, and I'll take d----d good care I never do!" + +Now I fancy that not a few of our "golden youth," who are either born +to it, or have contrived in their own way to get the "silver spoon" into +their mouths, are under the impression that all hunting must necessarily +be dead slow if conducted out of Leicestershire, and that little sport, +with less excitement, is to be obtained in those remote regions which +they contemptuously term the provinces. + +There never was a greater fallacy. If we calculate the number of hours +hounds are out of kennel (for we must remember that the Quorn and +Belvoir put two days into one), we shall find, I think, that they run +hard for fewer minutes, in proportion, across the fashionable countries +than in apparently less-favoured districts concealed at sundry +out-of-the-way corners of the kingdom. + +Nor is this disparity difficult to understand. Fox-hunting at its best +is a wild sport; the wilder the better. Where coverts are many miles +apart, where the animal must travel for its food, where agriculture is +conducted on primitive principles that do not necessitate the huntsman's +horror, "a man in every field," the fox retains all his savage nature, +and is prepared to run any distance, face every obstacle, rather than +succumb to his relentless enemy, the hound. He has need, and he seems to +know it, of all his courage and all his sagacity, as compelled to fight +alone on his own behalf, without assistance from that invaluable ally, +the crowd. + +A score of hard riders, nineteen of whom are jealous, and the twentieth +determined not to be beat, forced on by a hundred comrades all eager for +the view and its stentorian proclamation, may well save the life of any +fox on earth, with scarce an effort from the animal itself. But that +hounds are creatures of habit, and huntsmen in the flying countries +miracles of patience, no less than their masters, not a nose would be +nailed on the kennel-door, after cub-hunting was over, from one end of +the shires to the other. + +Nothing surprises me so much as to see a pack of hounds, like the +Belvoir or the Quorn, come up _through_ a crowd of horses and stick to +the line of their fox, or fling gallantly forward to recover it, without +a thought of personal danger or the slightest misgiving that not one man +in ten is master of the two pair of hoofs beneath him, carrying death in +every shoe. Were they not bred for the make-and-shape that gives them +speed no less than for fineness of nose, but especially for that _dash_ +which, like all victorious qualities, leaves something to chance, they +could never get a field from the covert. It does happen, however, that, +now and again, a favourable stroke of fortune puts a couple of furlongs +between the hounds and their pursuers. A hundred-acre field of well +saturated grass lies before them, down go their noses, out go their +sterns, and away they scour, at a pace which makes a precious example of +young Rapid on a first-class steeple-chase horse with the wrong bridle +in its mouth. + +But how differently is the same sport being carried out in his father's +country, perhaps by the old gentleman's own pack, with which the young +one considers it slow to hunt. + +Let us begin at the beginning and try to imagine a good day in the +provinces, about the third week in November, when leaves are thin and +threadbare on the fences, while copse and woodland glisten under subdued +shafts of sunlight in sheets of yellow gold. + +What says Mr. Warburton, favoured of Diana and the Muses? + + "The dew-drop is clinging + To whin-bush and brake, + The sky-lark is singing, + Merry hunters, awake! + Home to the cover, + Deserted by night, + The little red rover + Is bending his flight--" + +Could words more stirringly describe the hope and promise, the joy, the +vitality, the buoyant exhilaration of a hunting morning? + +So the little red rover, who has travelled half-a-dozen miles for his +supper, returns to find he has "forgotten his latch-key," and curls +himself up in some dry, warm nook amongst the brushwood, at the quietest +corner of a deep, precipitous ravine. + +Here, while sleep favours digestion, he makes himself very comfortable, +and dreams, no doubt, of his own pleasures and successes in pursuit of +prey. Presently, about half-past eleven, he wakes with a start, leaps +out of bed, shakes his fur, and stands to listen, a perfect picture, +with one pad raised and his cunning head aslant. Yes, he recognized it +from the first. The "Yooi, wind him, and rouse him!" of old Matthew's +mellow tones, not unknown in a gin-and-water chorus when occasion +warrants the convivial brew, yet clear, healthy, and resonant as the +very roar of Challenger, who has just proclaimed his consciousness of +the drag, some five hours old. + +'Tis an experienced rover, and does not hesitate for an instant. +Stealing down the ravine, he twists his agile little body through a +tangled growth of blackthorn and brambles, crosses the stream dry-footed +with a leap, and, creeping through the fence that bounds his stronghold, +peers into the meadow beyond. No smart and busy whip has "clapped +forward" to view and head him. Matthew, indeed, brings out but one, and +swears he could do better without _him_. So the rover puts his sharp +nose straight for the solitude he loves, and whisking his brush +defiantly, resolves to make his point. + +He has been gone five minutes when the clamour of the find reaches +his ears, twice that time ere the hounds are fairly out of covert on his +line; so, with a clear head and a bold heart, he has leisure to consider +his tactics and to remember the main earth at Crag's-end in the forest, +twelve miles off as the crow flies. + +[Illustration: Page 225.] + +Challenger, and Charmer his progeny, crash out of the wood together, +fairly howling with ecstasy as their busy noses meet the rich tufted +herbage, dewy, dank, and tainted with the maddening odour that affords +such uncontrolled enjoyment. "_Harve art_ him, my _lards_!" exclaims old +Matthew, in Doric accents, peculiar to the kennel. "Come up, horse!" +and, having admonished that faithful servant with a dig in the ribs from +his horn, blows half-a-dozen shrill blasts in quick succession, sticks +the instrument, I shudder to confess it, in his boot, and proceeds to +hustle his old white nag at the best pace he can command in the wake of +his favourites. "Dang it! they're off," exclaims a farmer, who had +stationed himself on the crest of the hill, diving, at a gallop, down a +stony darkling lane, overgrown with alder, brambles, honeysuckle, all +the garden produce of uncultivated nature, lush and steaming in decay. +The field, consisting of the Squire, three or four strapping yeomen, a +parson, and a boy on a pony, follow his example, and making a good turn +in the valley, find themselves splashing through a glittering, shallow +streamlet, still in the lane, with the hounds not a bowshot from them on +the right. + +"And pace?" inquires young Rapid, when his father describes the run to +him on Christmas-eve. "Of course you had no pace with so good a point?" + +"Pace, sir!" answers the indignant parent; "my hounds _run_ because they +can _hunt_. I tell you, they were never off the line for an hour and +three-quarters! Matthew _would_ try to cast them once, and very nearly +lost his fox, but Charmer hit it off on the other side of the combe and +put us right. He's as like old Challenger as he can stick; a deal more +like than _you_ are to _me_." + +Young Rapid concedes the point readily, and the Squire continues his +narrative: "I had but eighteen couple out, because of a run the week +before--I'll tell you about it presently,--five-and-thirty minutes on +the hills, and a kill in the open, that lamed half the pack amongst the +flints. You talk of pace--they went fast enough to have settled the best +of you, I'll warrant! but I'm getting off the line--I've not done with +the other yet. I never saw hounds work better. They came away all +together, they hunted their fox like a cluster of bees; swarming over +every field, and every fence, they brought him across Tinglebury Tor, +where it's always as dry as that hearth-stone, through a flock of five +hundred sheep, they rattled him in and out of Combe-Bampton, though the +Lower Woods were alive with riot--hares, roe, fallow-deer, hang it! apes +and peacocks if you like; had old Matthew not been a fool they would +never have hesitated for a moment, and when they ran into him under +Crag's-end, there wasn't a man-jack of them missing. Not one--that's +what I call a pack of hounds! + +"The best part of it? So much depends on whether you young fellows go +out to hunt, or to ride. For the first half-hour or so we were never off +the grass--there's not a ploughed field all the way up the valley till +you come to Shifner's allotments, orchard and meadow, meadow and +orchard, fetlock-deep in grass, even at this time of year. Why, it +carries a side-scent, like the heather on a moor! I suppose you'd have +called _that_ the best part. I didn't, though I saw it _well_ from the +lane with Matthew and the rest of us, all but the Vicar, who went into +every field with the hounds--I thought he was rather hard on them +amongst those great blind, tangled fences; but he's such a good fellow, +I hadn't the heart to holloa at him--it's very wrong though, and a man +in his profession ought to know better. + +"I can't say they checked exactly in the allotments, but the manure and +rubbish, weeds burning, and whatnot, brought them to their noses. That's +where Matthew made such a fool of himself; but, as I told you, Charmer +put us all right. The fox had crossed into Combe-Bampton and was rising +the hill for the downs. + +"I never saw hounds so patient--they could but just hold a line over the +chalk--first one and then another puzzled it out, till they got on +better terms in Hazlewood Hanger, and when they ran down into the valley +again between the cliffs there was a cry it did one's heart good to +hear. + +"I had a view of him, crossing Parker's Piece, the long strip of waste +land, you know, under Craven Clump; and he seemed as fresh as you are +now--I sat as mute as a mouse, for six-and-thirty noses knew better +where he'd gone than I did, and six-and-thirty-tongues were at work that +never told a lie. The Vicar gave them plenty of room by this time, and +all our horses seemed to have had about enough! + +"'I wish we mayn't have changed in the Hanger,' said Matthew, +refreshing the old grey with a side-binder, as they blundered into the +lane, but I knew better--he had run the rides, every yard, and that made +me hope we should have him in hand before long. + +"It began to get very interesting, I was near enough to watch each hound +doing his work, eighteen couple, all dogs, three and four season +hunters, for I hadn't a single puppy out. I wish you had been there, my +boy. It was a real lesson in hunting, and I'll tell you what I thought +of them, one by ----. Hulloh! Yes. You'd better ring for coffee--Hanged +if I don't believe you've been fast asleep all the time!" + +But such runs as these, though wearisome to a listener, are most +enjoyable for those who can appreciate the steadiness and sagacity of +the hound, no less than the craft and courage of the animal it pursues. +There is an indescribable charm too, in what I may call the _romance_ of +hunting,--the remote scenes we should perhaps never visit for their own +sake, the broken sunlight glinting through copse and gleaming on fern, +the woodland sights, the woodland sounds, the balmy odours of nature, +and all the treats she provides for her votaries, tasted and enjoyed, +with every faculty roused, every sense sharpened in the excitement of +our pursuit. These delights are better known in the provinces than the +shires, and to descend from flights of fancy to practical matters of L +_s._ _d._, we can hunt in the former at comparatively trifling expense. + +In the first place, particularly if good horsemen, we need not be +nearly so well-mounted. There are few provincial countries in which a +man who knows how to ride, cannot get from one field to another, by hook +or by crook, with a little creeping and scrambling and blundering, that +come far short of the casualty we deprecate as "a rattling fall!" His +horse must be in good condition of course, and able to gallop; also if +temperate, the more willing at his fences the better, but it is not +indispensable that he should possess the stride and power necessary to +cover some twenty feet of distance, and four or five of height, at every +leap, nor the blood that can alone enable him to repeat the exertion, +over and over again, at three-quarter speed in deep ground. To jump, as +it is called, "from field to field," tries a horse's stamina no less +severely than his courage, while, as I have already observed, there is +no such economy of effort, and even danger, as to make two small fences +out of a large one. + +I do not mean to say that there are any parts of England where, if +hounds run hard, a hunter, with a workman on his back, has not enough to +do to live with them, but I do consider that, _caeteris paribus_, a good +rider may smuggle a moderate horse over most of our provincial +countries, whereas he would be helpless on the same animal in +Leicestershire or Northamptonshire. There, on the other hand, an +inferior horseman, bold enough to place implicit confidence in the +first-class hunter he rides, may see a run, from end to end, with +considerable credit and enjoyment, by the simple process of keeping a +good hold of his bridle, while he leaves everything to the horse. But he +must not have learned a single letter of the noble word "Funk." Directly +his heart fails, and he interferes, down they both come, an _imperial +crowner_, and the game is lost! + +Many of our provincial districts are also calculated, from their very +nature, to turn out experienced sportsmen no less than accomplished +riders. In large woods, amongst secluded hills, or wild tracts of moor +intersected by impracticable ravines, a lover of the chase is compelled +by force of circumstances to depend on his own eyes, ears, and general +intelligence for his amusement. + +He finds no young Rapid to pilot him over the large places, if he +_means going_; no crafty band of second-horsemen to guide him in safety +to the finish, if his ambition is satisfied with a distant and +occasional view of the stirring pageant; no convenient hand-gate in the +corner, no friendly bridge across the stream; above all, no hurrying +cavalcade drawn out for miles, amongst which to hide, and with whom +pleasantly to compare notes hereafter in those self-deceiving moments, +when + + "Dined, o'er our claret, we talk of the merit, + Of every choice spirit that rode in the run. + But here the crowd, Sir, can talk just as loud, Sir, + As those who were forward enjoying the fun!" + +No. In the provinces our young sportsman must make up his mind to take +his own part, to study the coverts drawn, and find out for himself the +points where he can see, hear, and, so to speak, command hounds till +they go away; must learn how to rise the hill with least labour, and +descend it with greatest dispatch, how to thread glen, combe, or dale, +wind in and out of the rugged ravine, plunge through a morass, and make +his way home at night across trackless moor, or open storm-swept down. +By the time he has acquired these accomplishments, the horsemanship will +have come of itself. He will know how to bore where he cannot jump, to +creep where he must not fly, and so manage his horse that the animal +seems to share the intentions and intelligence of its rider. + +If he can afford it, and likes to spend a season or two in the shires +for the last superlative polish, let him go and welcome! He will be +taught to get clear of a crowd, to leap timber at short notice, to put +on his boots and breeches, and that is about all there is left for him +to learn! + +In the British army, though more than a hundred regiments constitute the +line, each cherishes its own particular title, while applying that +general application indiscriminately to the rest. + +I imagine the same illusion affects the provinces, and I should offend +an incalculable number of good fellows and good sportsmen, were I to +describe as _provincial_ establishments, the variety of hunts, north, +south, east, and west, with which I have enjoyed so much good company +and good fun. Each has its own claim to distinction, some have collars, +all have sport. + +Grass, I imagine, is the one essential that constitutes pre-eminence in +a hunting country, and for this the shires have always boasted they bear +away the palm, but it will surprise many of my readers to be told that +in the south and west there are districts where this desideratum seems +now more plentiful than in the middle of England. The Blackmoor Vale +still lies almost wholly under pasture, and you may travel to-day forty +miles by rail, through the counties of Dorset and Somerset, in general +terms nearly from Blandford to Bath, without seeing a ploughed field. + +What a country might here be made by such an enthusiast as poor "Sam +Reynell," who found Meath without a gorse-covert, and drew between +thirty and forty "sure finds" in it before he died! + +Independently of duty, which ought to be our first consideration, there +is also great convenience in hunting from home. We require no large +stud, can choose our meets, and, above all, are indifferent to weather. +A horse comes out so many times in a season; if we don't hunt to-day we +shall next week. Compare this equable frame of mind with the irritation +and impatience of a man who has ten hunters standing at the sign of "The +Hand-in-Pocket," while he inhabits the front parlour, without his books, +deprived of his usual society and occupations, the barometer at set +fair, and the atmosphere affording every indication of a six-weeks' +frost! + +Let us see in what the charm consists that impels people to encounter +bad food, bad wine, bad lodgings, and above all, protracted boredom, for +a campaign in those historical hunting-grounds, that have always seemed +to constitute the rosiest illusion of a sportsman's dream. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. + +THE SHIRES. + + + "Every species of fence every horse doesn't suit, + What's a good country hunter may here prove a brute," + +Sings that clerical bard who wrote the Billesdon-Coplow poem, from which +I have already quoted; and it would be difficult to explain more tersely +than do these two lines the difference between a fair useful hunter, and +the flyer we call _par excellence_ "a Leicestershire horse!" + +Alas! for the favourite unrivalled over Gloucestershire walls, among +Dorsetshire doubles, in the level ploughs of Holderness, or up and down +the wild Derbyshire hills, when called upon to gallop, we will say, from +Ashby pastures to the Coplow, after a week's rain, at Quorn pace, across +Quorn fences, unless he happens to possess with the speed of a +steeple-chaser, the courage of a lion and the activity of a cat! For the +first mile or two "pristinae virtutis haud immemor" he bears him +gallantly enough, even the unaccustomed rail on the far side of an +"oxer," elicits but a startling exertion, and a loud rattle of horn and +iron against wood, but ere long the slope rises against him, the +ridge-and-furrow checks his stride, a field, dotted with ant-hills as +large as church-hassocks and not unlike them in shape, to catch his toes +and impede his action, changes his smooth easy swing to a laborious +flounder, and presently at a thick bullfinch on the crest of a grassy +ridge, out of ground that takes him in nearly to his hocks, comes the +crisis. Too good a hunter to turn over, he gets his shoulders out and +lets his rider see the fall before it is administered, but down he goes +notwithstanding, very effectually, to rise again after a struggle, his +eye wild, nostril distended, and flanks heaving, thoroughly pumped out! + +He is a good horse, but you have brought him into the wrong country, and +this is the result. + +It would be a hopeless task to extract from young Rapid's laconic +phrases, and general indifference, any particulars regarding the burst +in which, to give him his due, he has gone brilliantly, or the merits of +the horse that carried him in the first flight without a mistake. He +wastes his time, his money, his talents, but not his words. For him and +his companions, question and answer are cut short somewhat in this +wise:-- + +"Did you get away with them from the Punchbowl?" + +"Yes, I was among the lucky ones." + +"Is, 'The King of the Golden Mines' any use?" + +"I fancy he is good enough." + +And yet he is reflecting on the merits of Self and Co. with no little +satisfaction, and does not grudge one shilling of the money--a hundred +down, and a bill for two hundred and fifty--that the horse with the +magnificent name cost him last spring. + +Their performance, I admit, does them both credit. I will endeavour to +give a rough sketch of the somewhat hazardous amusement that puts him +out of conceit with the sport shown by his father's hounds. + +Let us picture to ourselves then, Rapid junior, resplendent in the +whitest of breeches and brightest of boots, with a single-breasted, +square-cut scarlet coat, a sleek hat curly of brim, four feet of cane +hunting-whip in his hand, a flower at his breast, and a toothpick in his +mouth, replaced by an enormous cigar as somebody he doesn't know +suggests they are not likely to find. Though he looks so helpless, and +more than half-asleep, he is wide-awake enough in fact, and dashes the +weed unlighted from his lips, when he spies the huntsman stand up in his +stirrups as though on the watch. There lurks a fund of latent energy +under the placidity of our friend's demeanour, and, as four couple of +hounds come streaming out of cover, he shoots up the bank rather too +near them, to pick his place without hesitation in an ugly bullfinch at +the top. Two of his own kind are making for the same spot at the same +moment, and our young friend shows at such a crisis, that he knows how +to ride. Taking "The King of the Golden Mines," hard by the head, he +changes his aim on the instant, and rams the good horse at four feet of +strong timber, leaning towards him, with an energy not to be denied. +Over they go triumphantly, "The King," half affronted, "catching hold" +with some resentment, as he settles vigorously to his stride. What +matter? most of the pack are already half-way across the next field, for +Leicestershire hounds have an extraordinary knack of flying forward to +overtake their comrades. His father would be delighted with the +performance, and would call it "scoring to cry," but young Rapid does +not trouble himself about such matters. He is only glad to find they are +out of his way, and thinks no more about it, except to rejoice that he +can "put the steam on," without the usual remonstrance from huntsman and +master. + +The King can gallop like a race-horse, and is soon at the next leap--a +wide ditch, a high staked-and-bound hedge, coarse, rough and strong, +with a drop and what you please, on the other side. This last treat +proves to be a bowed-out oak-rail, standing four feet from the fence. +"The King," full of courage, and going fast, bounds over the whole with +his hind legs tucked under him like a deer, ready, but not requiring, to +strike back, while two of Rapid's young friends with whom he dined +yesterday, and one he will meet at dinner to-day, fly it in similar +form, nearly alongside. An ugly, overgrown bullfinch, with a miniature +ravine, or, as it is here called, "a bottom," appears at the foot of the +hill they are now descending, and, as there seems only one practicable +place, these four reckless individuals at once begin to race for the +desirable spot. The King's turn of speed serves him again; covering +five- or six-and-twenty feet, he leaps it a length in front of the +nearest horse, and a couple of strides before the other two, while loud +reproachful outcries resound in the rear because of Harmony's narrow +escape--the King's forefoot, missing that priceless bitch by a yard! + +Our young gentleman, having got a lead now, begins to ride with more +judgment. He trots up to a stile and pops over in truly artistic form; +better still, he gives the hounds plenty of room on the fallow beyond, +where they have hovered for a moment and put down their noses, holding +his hand up to warn those behind, a "bit of cheek," as they call this +precautionary measure, which he will be made to remember for some days +to come! + +He is not such a fool but that he knows, from experience in the old +country, how a little patience at these critical moments makes the whole +difference between a good day's sport and a bad. It would be provoking +to lose the chance of a gallop now, when he has got such a start, and is +riding the best horse in his stable, so he looks anxiously over his +shoulder for the huntsman, who is "coming," and stands fifty yards +aloof, which he considers a liberal allowance, that the hounds may have +space to swing. + +To-day there is a good scent and a good fox, a combination that happens +oftener than might be supposed. Harmony, who, notwithstanding her recent +peril, has never been off the line, though the others over-shot it, +scours away at a tangent, with the slightest possible whimper, and her +stern down, the leading hounds wheeling to her like pigeons, and the +whole pack driving forward again, harder than before. + +It is a beautiful turn; young Rapid would admire it, no doubt, were his +attention not distracted by the gate out of the field, which is chained +up, and a hurried calculation as to whether it is too high for the King +to attempt. + +The solution is obvious. I need hardly say he jumps it gallantly in his +stride. It would never do, you see, to let those other fellows catch +him, and he sails away once more with a stronger lead than at first. +What a hunting panorama opens on his view!--a downward stretch of a +couple of miles, and a gentle rise beyond of more than twice that +distance, consisting wholly of enormous grass fields, dotted here and +there with single trees, and separated by long lines of fences, showing +black and level on that faded expanse of green. The smoke from a +farm-house rises white and thin against the dull sky in the middle +distance, and a taper church-spire points to heaven from behind the +hill, otherwise there is not an object for miles to recall everyday +life; and young Rapid's world consists at this moment of two reeking +pointed ears, with a vision of certain dim shapes, fleeting like shadows +across the open--swift, dusky, and noiseless as a dream. + +His blood thrills with excitement, from the crown of his close-cropped +head to his silken-covered heel, but education is stronger than nature, +and he tightens his lips, perhaps to repress a cheer, while he +murmurs--"Over the brook for a hundred! and the King never turned from +water in his life." + +Two more fences bring him to the level meadow with its willows. Harmony +is shaking herself on the farther bank, and he has marked with his eye +the spot where he means to take off. A strong pull, a steady hand, the +energy of a mile gallop condensed into a dozen strides, and the stream +passes beneath him like a flash. "It's a _rum_ one!" he murmurs, +standing up in his stirrups to ease the good horse, while one follower +exclaims "Bravo! Rapid. Go along, old man!" as the speaker plunges +overhead; and another, who lands with a scramble, mutters, "D----n him, +I shall never catch him! my horse is done to a turn _now_." + +"The King," his owner thinks, is well worth the L350 that has _not_ been +paid. The horse has caught his second wind, and keeps striding on, +strong and full of running, though temperate enough now, and, in such a +country as this, a truly delightful mount. + +[Illustration: Page 242.] + +There is no denying that our friend is a capital horseman, and bold +as need be. "The King of the Golden Mines," with a _workman_ on his +back, can hardly be defeated by any obstacle that the power and spring +of a quadruped ought to surmount. He has tremendous stride, and no less +courage than his master, so fence after fence is thrown behind the happy +pair with a sensation like flying that seems equally gratifying to both. +The ground is soft but sound enough; the leaps, though large, are fair +and clean. One by one they are covered in light, elastic bounds, of +eighteen or twenty feet, and for a mile, at least, the King scarcely +alters his action, and never changes his leg. Young Rapid would ask no +better fun than to go on like this for a week. + +Once he has a narrow escape. The fox having turned short up a hedgerow +after crossing it, the hounds, though running _to kill_, turn _as_ +short, for which they deserve the praise there is nobody present to +bestow, and Rapid, charging the fence with considerable freedom, just +misses landing in the middle of the pack. I know it, because he +acknowledged it after dinner, professing, at the same time, devout +thankfulness that master and huntsman were too far off to see. Just such +another turn is made at the next fence, but this time on the near side. +The hounds disappear suddenly, tumbling over each other into the ditch +like a cascade. Peering between his horse's ears, the successful rider +can distinguish only a confused whirl of muddy backs, and legs, and +sterns, seen through a cloud of steam; but smothered growls, with a +certain vibration of the busy cluster, announce that they have got him, +and Rapid so far forgets himself as to venture on a feeble "Who--whoop!" + +Before he can leap from the saddle the huntsman comes up followed by two +others, one of whom, pulling out his watch, with a delighted face +repeats frantically, "Seven-and-twenty minutes, and a kill in the open! +_What_ a good gallop! Not the ghost of a check from end to end. +Seven-and-twenty minutes," and so on, over and over again. + +While the field straggle in, and the obsequies of this good fox are +properly celebrated, a little enthusiasm would be justifiable enough on +the part of a young gentleman who has "had the best of it" +unquestionably through the whole of so brilliant a scurry. He might be +expected to enlarge volubly, and with excusable self-consciousness, on +the pace, the country, the straight running of the fox, the speed and +gallantry of the hounds; nor could we blame him for praising by +implication his own determined riding in a tribute to "The King of the +Golden Mines." + +But such extravagancies are studiously repudiated and repressed by the +school to which young Rapid belongs. All he _does_ say is this-- + +"I wonder when the second horses will come up? I want some luncheon +before we go and find another fox." + +I have already observed that in the shires we put two days into one. +Where seventy or eighty couple of hounds are kept and thirty horses, to +hunt four times a week, with plenty of country, in which you may find a +fox every five minutes, there can be no reason for going home while +light serves; and really good scenting days occur so rarely that we may +well be tempted to make the most of one even with jaded servants and a +half-tired pack of hounds. The field, too, are considerably diminished +by three or four o'clock. One has no second horse, another must get home +to write his letters, and, if within distance of Melton, some hurry back +to play whist. Everything is comparative. With forty or fifty horsemen +left, a huntsman breathes more freely, and these, who are probably +enthusiasts, begin to congratulate themselves that the best of the day +is yet to come. "Let us go and draw Melton Spinney," is a suggestion +that brightens every eye; and the Duke will always draw Melton Spinney +so long as he can see. It is no unusual thing for his hounds to kill, +and, I have been told, they once _found_ their fox by moonlight, so that +it is proverbial all over his country, if you only stop out late enough, +you are sure of a run with the Belvoir at last. And then, whether you +belong to the school of young Rapid or his father, you will equally have +a treat. Are you fond of hounds? Here is a pack that cannot be +surpassed, to delight the most fastidious eye, satisfy the most critical +taste. Do you like to see them _hunt_? Watch how these put their noses +down, tempering energy with patience, yet so bustling and resolute as to +work a bad scent into a good one. Are you an admirer of make-and-shape? +Mark this perfect symmetry of form, bigger, stronger, and tougher than +it looks. Do you understand kennel management and condition? Ask Gillard +why his hounds are never known to tire, and get from him what hints you +can. + +Lastly, do you want to gallop and jump, defeat your dearest friends, and +get to the end of your best horse? That is but a moderate scenting-day, +on which the Belvoir will not afford opportunity to do both. If you can +live with them while they run, and see them race into their fox at the +finish, I congratulate you on having science, nerve, all the qualities +of horsemanship, a good hunter, and, above all, a good groom. + +These remarks as to pace, stoutness, and sporting qualities, apply also +to the Quorn, the Cottesmore, and the Pytchley. This last, indeed, with +its extensive range of woodlands in Rockingham Forest, possesses the +finest hunting country in England, spacious enough to stand six days a +week in the mildest of winters all the season through. Under the rule of +Lord Spencer, who has brought to bear on his favourite amusement the +talent, energy, and administrative powers that, while they remained in +office, were so serviceable to his party, the Pytchley seems to have +recovered its ancient renown, and the sport provided for the white +collars during the last year or two has been much above the average. His +lordship thoroughly understands the whole management of hounds, in the +kennel and the field, is enthusiastically fond of the pursuit, and, +being a very determined rider as well as an excellent judge of a horse, +is always present in an emergency to observe the cause and take measures +for the remedy. Will Goodall has but little to learn as a huntsman, and, +like his father, the unrivalled Will Goodall of Belvoir celebrity, +places implicit confidence in his hounds. "They can put me right," seems +his maxim, "oftener than I can put them!" If a man wanted to see "a +gallop in the shires" at its best, he should meet the Pytchley some +Saturday in February at Waterloo Gorse, but I am bound to caution him +that he ought to ride a brilliant hunter, and, as young Rapid would say, +"harden his heart" to make strong use of him. + +Large grass fields, from fifty to a hundred acres in extent, carrying a +rare scent, are indeed tempting; but to my own taste, though perhaps in +this my reader may not agree with me, they would be more inviting were +they not separated by such forbidding fences. A high black-thorn hedge, +strong enough to hold an elephant, with one, and sometimes two ditches, +fortified, moreover, in many cases, by a rail placed half a horse's +length off to keep out cattle from the thorns, offers, indeed, scope for +all the nobler qualities of man and beast, but while sufficiently +perilous for glory, seems to my mind rather too stiff for pleasure! + +And yet I have seen half-a-dozen good men well-mounted live with hounds +over this country for two or three miles on end without a fall, nor do I +believe that in these stiffly fenced grazing grounds the average of +dirty coats is greater than in less difficult-looking districts. It may +be that those who compete are on the best of hunters, and that a horse +finds all his energies roused by the formidable nature of such +obstacles, if he means to face them at all! + +And now a word about those casualties which perhaps rather enhance than +damp our ardour in the chase. Mr. Assheton Smith used to say that no man +could be called a good rider who did not _know how to fall_. + +Founded on his own exhaustive experience there is much sound wisdom in +this remark. The oftener a man is down, the less likely is he to be +hurt, and although, as the old joke tells us, absence of body as regards +danger seems even preferable to presence of mind, the latter quality is +not without its advantage in the crisis that can no longer be deferred. + +I have seen men so flurried when their horses' noses touched the ground +as to fling themselves wildly from the saddle, and meet their own +apprehensions half-way, converting an uncertain scramble into a certain +downfall. Now it should never be forgotten that a horse in difficulties +has the best chance of recovery if the rider sits quiet in the middle of +his saddle and lets the animal's head alone. It is always time enough to +part company when his own knee touches the ground, and as he then knows +exactly _where_ his horse is, he can get out of the way of its impending +body, ere it comes heavily to the earth. If his seat is not strong +enough to admit of such desirable tenacity, let him at least keep a firm +hold of the bridle; that connecting link will, so to speak, "preserve +his communications," and a kick with one foot, or timely roll of his own +person, will take him out of harm's way. + +The worst fall a man can get is to be thrown over his horse's head, +with such violence as to lay him senseless till the animal, turning a +somersault, crushes his prostrate body with all the weight of its own. +Such accidents must sometimes happen, of course, but they are not +necessarily of every-day occurrence. By riding with moderate speed at +his fences, and preserving, on all occasions, coolness, good-humour, and +confidence in his partner, a sportsman, even when past his prime, may +cross the severest parts of the Harborough country itself with an +infinitesimal amount of danger to life and limb. Kindness, coercion, +hand, seat, valour, and discretion should be combined in due proportion, +and the mixture, as far as the hunting-field is concerned, will come out +a real _elixir vitae_ such as the pale Rosicrucian poring over crucible +and alembic sought to compound in vain. + +I cannot forbear quoting once more from the gallant soul-stirring lines +of Mr. Bromley Davenport, himself an enthusiast who, to this day, never +seems to remember he has a neck to break! + + "What is time? the effusion of life zoophytic, + In dreary pursuit of position or gain. + What is life? the absorption of vapours mephitic, + The bursting of sunlight on senses and brain. + Such a life has been mine, though so speedily over, + Condensing the joys of a century's course, + From the find, till they ate him near Woodwell-Head Covert, + In thirty bright minutes from Banksborough Gorse!" + +Yes, when all is said and done, perhaps the very acme and perfection of +a _riding_ run, is to be attained within fifteen miles of Melton. A man +who has once been fortunate enough to find himself, for ever so short a +distance, leading + + "The cream of the cream, in the shire of shires," + +will never, I imagine, forget his feelings of triumph and satisfaction +while he occupied so proud a position; nor do I think that, as a matter +of mere amusement and pleasurable excitement, life can offer anything to +compare with a good horse, a good conscience, a good start, and + + "A quick thirty minutes from Banksborough Gorse." + + +THE END. + + + + + LONDON: + R. CLAY, SONS, AND TAYLOR, + BREAD STREET HILL, E.C. + + + + + _193, PICCADILLY, LONDON, W. + NOVEMBER, 1877._ + + + Chapman and Hall's + + CATALOGUE OF BOOKS. + + INCLUDING + + DRAWING EXAMPLES, DIAGRAMS, MODELS, + INSTRUMENTS, ETC. + + ISSUED UNDER THE AUTHORITY OF + + THE SCIENCE AND ART DEPARTMENT + SOUTH KENSINGTON, + + FOR THE USE OF SCHOOLS AND ART AND SCIENCE CLASSES. + + + + + NEW NOVELS. + + + NEW NOVEL, BY THE DUKE DE POMAR. + + A SECRET MARRIAGE. + By THE DUKE DE POMAR. + + Author of "Fashion and Passion," &c. &c. [3 VOLS. + + + NEW NOVEL, BY ANNIE THOMAS. + + A LAGGARD IN LOVE. + By ANNIE THOMAS (MRS. 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With the Original Illustrations, 30 vols., cloth, L12._ + + _s.__d._ + PICKWICK PAPERS 43 Illustrns., 2 vols. 16 0 + NICHOLAS NICKLEBY 39 " 2 vols. 16 0 + MARTIN CHUZZLEWIT 40 " 2 vols. 16 0 + OLD CURIOSITY SHOP and REPRINTED PIECES 36 " 2 vols. 16 0 + BARNABY RUDGE and HARD TIMES 36 " 2 vols. 16 0 + BLEAK HOUSE 40 " 2 vols. 16 0 + LITTLE DORRIT 40 " 2 vols. 16 0 + DOMBEY AND SON 38 " 2 vols. 16 0 + DAVID COPPERFIELD 38 " 2 vols. 16 0 + OUR MUTUAL FRIEND 40 " 2 vols. 16 0 + SKETCHES BY "BOZ" 39 " 1 vol. 8 0 + OLIVER TWIST 24 " 1 vol. 8 0 + CHRISTMAS BOOKS 17 " 1 vol. 8 0 + A TALE OF TWO CITIES 16 " 1 vol. 8 0 + GREAT EXPECTATIONS 8 " 1 vol. 8 0 + PICTURES FROM ITALY and AMERICAN NOTES 8 " 1 vol. 8 0 + UNCOMMERCIAL TRAVELLER 8 " 1 vol. 8 0 + CHILD'S HISTORY OF ENGLAND 8 " 1 vol. 8 0 + EDWIN DROOD and MISCELLANIES 12 " 1 vol. 8 0 + CHRISTMAS STORIES from "Household Words," + &c. 16 " 1 vol. 8 0 + + +THE "CHARLES DICKENS" EDITION. + +_In Crown 8vo. In 21 vols., cloth, with Illustrations, L3 9s. 6d._ + + PICKWICK PAPERS 8 Illustrations 3 6 + MARTIN CHUZZLEWIT 8 " 3 6 + DOMBEY AND SON 8 " 3 6 + NICHOLAS NICKLEBY 8 " 3 6 + DAVID COPPERFIELD 8 " 3 6 + BLEAK HOUSE 8 " 3 6 + LITTLE DORRIT 8 " 3 6 + OUR MUTUAL FRIEND 8 " 3 6 + BARNABY RUDGE 8 " 3 6 + OLD CURIOSITY SHOP 8 " 3 6 + A CHILD'S HISTORY OF ENGLAND 4 " 3 6 + EDWIN DROOD and OTHER STORIES 8 " 3 6 + CHRISTMAS STORIES, from "Household Words" 8 " 3 0 + TALE OF TWO CITIES 8 " 3 0 + SKETCHES BY "BOZ" 8 " 3 0 + AMERICAN NOTES and REPRINTED PIECES 8 " 3 0 + CHRISTMAS BOOKS 8 " 3 0 + OLIVER TWIST 8 " 3 0 + GREAT EXPECTATIONS 8 " 3 0 + HARD TIMES and PICTURES FROM ITALY 8 " 3 0 + UNCOMMERCIAL TRAVELLER 4 " 3 0 + THE LIFE OF CHARLES DICKENS. Uniform with this Edition, with Numerous + Illustrations. 2 vols. 3s. 6d. each. + + +THE ILLUSTRATED LIBRARY EDITION. + +_Complete in 30 Volumes. Demy 8vo, 10s. each; or set, L15._ + +This Edition is printed on a finer paper and in a larger type than has +been employed in any previous edition. The type has been cast especially +for it, and the page is of a size to admit of the introduction of all +the original illustrations. + +No such attractive issue has been made of the writings of Mr. Dickens, +which, various as have been the forms of publication adapted to the +demands of an ever widely-increasing popularity, have never yet been +worthily presented in a really handsome library form. + +The collection comprises all the minor writings it was Mr. Dickens's +wish to preserve. + + SKETCHES BY "BOZ." With 40 Illustrations by George Cruikshank. + + PICKWICK PAPERS. 2 vols. With 42 Illustrations by Phiz. + + OLIVER TWIST. With 24 Illustrations by Cruikshank. + + NICHOLAS NICKLEBY. 2 vols. With 40 Illustrations by Phiz. + + OLD CURIOSITY SHOP and REPRINTED PIECES. 2 vols. With Illustrations + by Cattermole, &c. + + BARNABY RUDGE and HARD TIMES. 2 vols. With Illustrations by + Cattermole, &c. + + MARTIN CHUZZLEWIT. 2 vols. With 40 Illustrations by Phiz. + + AMERICAN NOTES and PICTURES FROM ITALY, 1 vol. With 8 Illustrations. + + DOMBEY AND SON. 2 vols. With 40 Illustrations by Phiz. + + DAVID COPPERFIELD. 2 vols. With 40 Illustrations by Phiz. + + BLEAK HOUSE. 2 vols. With 40 Illustrations by Phiz. + + LITTLE DORRIT. 2 vols. With 40 Illustrations by Phiz. + + A TALE OF TWO CITIES. With 16 Illustrations by Phiz. + + THE UNCOMMERCIAL TRAVELLER. With 8 Illustrations by Marcus Stone. + + GREAT EXPECTATIONS. With 8 Illustrations by Marcus Stone. + + OUR MUTUAL FRIEND. 2 vols. With 40 Illustrations by Marcus Stone. + + CHRISTMAS BOOKS. With 17 Illustrations by Sir Edwin Landseer, R.A., + Maclise, R.A., &c. &c. + + HISTORY OF ENGLAND. With 8 Illustrations by Marcus Stone. + + CHRISTMAS STORIES. (From "Household Words" and "All the Year + Round.") With 14 Illustrations. + + EDWIN DROOD AND OTHER STORIES. With 12 Illustrations by S. L. + Fildes. + + +HOUSEHOLD EDITION. + +_In Crown 4to vols. Now Publishing in Weekly Penny Numbers and Sixpenny +Monthly Parts. Each Penny Number will contain Two Illustrations._ + +15 Volumes completed. + + OLIVER TWIST, with 28 Illustrations, cloth, 2s. 6d.; paper, 1s. 6d. + + MARTIN CHUZZLEWIT, with 59 Illustrations, cloth, 4s.; paper, 3s. + + DAVID COPPERFIELD, with 60 Illustrations and a Portrait, cloth, 4s.; + paper, 3s. + + BLEAK HOUSE, with 61 Illustrations, cloth, 4s.; paper, 3s. + + LITTLE DORRIT, with 58 Illustrations, cloth, 4s.; paper, 3s. + + PICKWICK PAPERS, with 56 Illustrations, cloth, 4s.; paper, 3s. + + BARNABY RUDGE, with 46 Illustrations, cloth, 4s.; paper, 3s. + + A TALE OF TWO CITIES, with 25 Illustrations, cloth, 2s. 6d.; paper, + 1s. 6d. + + OUR MUTUAL FRIEND, with 58 Illustrations, cloth, 4s.; paper, 3s. + + NICHOLAS NICKLEBY, with 59 Illustrations by F. Barnard, cloth, 4s.; + paper, 3s. + + GREAT EXPECTATIONS, with 26 Illustrations by F. A. Frazer, cloth, + 1s. 6d.; paper, 1s. 9d. + + OLD CURIOSITY SHOP, with 39 Illustrations by Charles Green, cloth, + 4s.; paper, 3s. + + SKETCHES BY "BOZ," with 36 Illustrations by F. Barnard, cloth, 2s. + 6d.; paper, 1s. 9d. + + HARD TIMES, with 20 Illustrations by H. French, cloth, 2s.; paper, + 1s. 6d. + + DOMBEY AND SON, with 61 Illustrations by F. Barnard, cloth, 43.; + paper, 3s. + + UNCOMMERCIAL TRAVELLER, with 26 Illustrations by E. G. Dalziel, + cloth, 2s. 6d.; paper, 1s. 9d. + +Messrs. CHAPMAN & HALL trust that by this Edition they will be enabled +to place the works of the most popular British Author of the present day +in the hands of all English readers. + +The next Volume will be CHRISTMAS BOOKS. + + +PEOPLE'S EDITION. + + PICKWICK PAPERS. In Boards. Illustrated. 2s. + SKETCHES BY BOZ. In Boards. Illustrated. 2s. + OLIVER TWIST. In Boards. Illustrated. 2s. + NICHOLAS NICKLEBY. In Boards. Illustrated. 2s. + + +MR. DICKENS'S READINGS. + +_Fcap. 8vo, sewed._ + + CHRISTMAS CAROL IN PROSE, 1s. + CRICKET ON THE HEARTH, 1s. + CHIMES: A GOBLIN STORY, 1s. + STORY OF LITTLE DOMBEY. 1s. + POOR TRAVELLER, BOOTS AT THE HOLLY-TREE INN, and MRS. GAMP, 1s. + + + A CHRISTMAS CAROL, with the Original Coloured Plates; being a reprint + of the Original Edition. Small 8vo, red cloth, gilt edges, 5s. + + + + THE LIBRARY + OF + CONTEMPORARY SCIENCE. + + +Some degree of truth has been admitted in the charge not unfrequently +brought against the English, that they are assiduous rather than solid +readers. They give themselves too much to the lighter forms of +literature. Technical Science is almost exclusively restricted to its +professed votaries, and, but for some of the Quarterlies and Monthlies, +very little solid matter would come within the reach of the general +public. + +But the circulation enjoyed by many of these very periodicals, and the +increase of the scientific journals, may be taken for sufficient proof +that a taste for more serious subjects of study is now growing. Indeed +there is good reason to believe that if strictly scientific subjects are +not more universally cultivated, it is mainly because they are not +rendered more accessible to the people. Such themes are treated either +too elaborately, or in too forbidding a style, or else brought out in +too costly a form to be easily available to all classes. + +With the view of remedying this manifold and increasing inconvenience, +we are glad to be able to take advantage of a comprehensive project +recently set on foot in France, emphatically the land of Popular +Science. The well-known publishers MM. Reinwald and Co., have made +satisfactory arrangements with some of the leading _savants_ of that +country to supply an exhaustive series of works on each and all of the +sciences of the day, treated in a style at once lucid, popular, and +strictly methodic. + +The names of MM. P. Broca, Secretary of the Societe d'Anthropologie; Ch. +Martins, Montpellier University; C. Vogt, University of Geneva; G. de +Mortillet, Museum of Saint Germain; A. Guillemin, author of "Ciel" and +"Phenomenes de la Physique;" A. Hovelacque, editor of the "Revue de +Linguistique;" Dr. Dally, Dr. Letourneau, and many others, whose +cooperation has already been secured, are a guarantee that their +respective subjects will receive thorough treatment, and will in all +cases be written up to the very latest discoveries, and kept in every +respect fully abreast of the times. + +We have, on our part, been fortunate in making such further +arrangements with some of the best writers and recognised authorities +here, as will enable us to present the series in a thoroughly English +dress to the reading public of this country. In so doing we feel +convinced that we are taking the best means of supplying a want that has +long been deeply felt. + +The volumes in actual course of execution, or contemplated, will embrace +such subjects as: + + SCIENCE OF LANGUAGE. [_Ready._ + BIOLOGY. [_In November._ + ANTHROPOLOGY. [_In December._ + COMPARATIVE MYTHOLOGY. + ASTRONOMY. + PREHISTORIC ARCHAEOLOGY. + ETHNOGRAPHY. + GEOLOGY. + HYGIENE. + POLITICAL ECONOMY. + PHYSICAL AND COMMERCIAL GEOGRAPHY. + PHILOSOPHY. + ARCHITECTURE. + CHEMISTRY. + EDUCATION. + GENERAL ANATOMY. + ZOOLOGY. + BOTANY. + METEOROLOGY. + HISTORY. + FINANCE. + MECHANICS. + STATISTICS, &c. &c. + +All the volumes, while complete and so far independent in themselves, +will be of uniform appearance, slightly varying, according to the nature +of the subject, in bulk and in price. + +When finished they will form a Complete Collection of Standard Works of +Reference on all the physical and mental sciences, thus fully justifying +the general title chosen for the series--"LIBRARY OF CONTEMPORARY +SCIENCE." + +"This is a translation of the first work of a new French series of +Popular Scientific Works. The high character of the series, and also its +bias, may be inferred from the names of some of its writers, e.g. P. +Broca, Ch. Martins, C. Vogt, &c. The English publishers announce that +the present volume will be followed immediately by others on +Anthropology and Biology. If they are like their precursor, they will be +clear and well written, somewhat polemical, and nobly contemptuous of +opponents.... The translator has done his work throughout with care and +success."--_Athenaeum_, Sept. 22, 1877. + + + + +LEVER'S (CHARLES) WORKS. + +THE ORIGINAL EDITION with THE ILLUSTRATIONS. + +_In 17 vols. Demy 8vo. Cloth, 6s. each._ + + +CHEAP EDITION. + +_Fancy boards, 2s. 6d._ + + CHARLES O'MALLEY. + TOM BURKE. + THE KNIGHT OF GWYNNE. + MARTINS OF CROMARTIN. + THE DALTONS. + ROLAND CASHEL. + DAVENPORT DUNN. + DODD FAMILY. + SIR BROOKE FOSBROOKE. + BRAMLEIGHS OF BISHOP'S FOLLY. + LORD KILGOBBIN. + + +_Fancy boards, 2s._ + + THE O'DONOGHUE. + FORTUNES OF GLENCORE. + HARRY LORREQUER. + ONE OF THEM. + A DAY'S RIDE. + JACK HINTON. + BARRINGTON. + TONY BUTLER. + MAURICE TIERNAY. + LUTTRELL OF ARRAN. + RENT IN THE CLOUD and ST PATRICK'S EVE. + CON CREGAN. + ARTHUR O'LEARY. + THAT BOY OF NORCOTT'S. + CORNELIUS O'DOWD. + SIR JASPER CAREW. + +_Also in sets, 27 vols. Cloth, for L4 4s._ + + + + +TROLLOPE'S (ANTHONY) WORKS. + + +CHEAP EDITION. + +_Boards, 2s. 6d., cloth, 3s. 6d._ + + PHINEAS FINN. + ORLEY FARM. + CAN YOU FORGIVE HER? + PHINEAS REDUX. + HE KNEW HE WAS RIGHT. + RALPH THE HEIR. + THE BERTRAMS. + EUSTACE DIAMONDS. + VICAR OF BULLHAMPTON. + +_Boards, 2s., cloth, 3s._ + + KELLYS AND O'KELLYS. + McDERMOT OF BALLYCLORAN. + CASTLE RICHMOND. + BELTON ESTATE. + MISS MACKENSIE. + LADY ANNA. + RACHEL RAY. + TALES OF ALL COUNTRIES. + MARY GRESLEY. + LOTTA SCHMIDT. + LA VENDEE. + DOCTOR THORNE. + + + + +WHYTE-MELVILLE'S WORKS. + + +CHEAP EDITION. + +_Crown 8vo, fancy boards, 2s. each, or 2s. 6d. in cloth._ + + UNCLE JOHN. A Novel. + THE WHITE ROSE. + CERISE. A Tale of the Last Century. + BROOKES OF BRIDLEMERE. + "BONES AND I;" or, The Skeleton at Home. + "M., OR N." Similia Similibus Curantur. + CONTRABAND; or, A Losing Hazard. + MARKET HARBOROUGH; or, How Mr. Sawyer went to the Shires. + SARCHEDON. A Legend of the Great Queen. + SONGS AND VERSES. + SATANELLA. A Story of Punchestown. + THE TRUE CROSS. A Legend of the Church. + KATERFELTO. A Story of Exmoor. + SISTER LOUISE; or, A Story of a Woman's Repentance. + + + + +CHAPMAN & HALL'S + +_List of Books, Drawing Examples, Diagrams, Models, Instruments, &c._ + +INCLUDING + + THOSE ISSUED UNDER THE AUTHORITY OF THE SCIENCE AND ART DEPARTMENT, + SOUTH KENSINGTON, FOR THE USE OF SCHOOLS AND ART AND SCIENCE + CLASSES. + +_BARTLEY (G. C. T.)_-- + + CATALOGUE OF MODERN WORKS ON SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY. Post 8vo, + sewed, 1s. + +_BENSON (W.)_-- + + PRINCIPLES OF THE SCIENCE OF COLOUR. Small 4to, cloth, 15s. + + MANUAL OF THE SCIENCE OF COLOUR. Coloured Frontispiece and + Illustrations. 12mo, cloth, 2s. 6d. + +_BRADLEY (THOMAS)_--_of the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich_-- + + ELEMENTS OF GEOMETRICAL DRAWING. In Two Parts, with 60 Plates. + Oblong-folio, half-bound, each part 16s. + + Selections (from the above) of 20 Plates, for the use of the Royal + Military Academy, Woolwich. Oblong-folio, half-bound, 16s. + +_BURCHETT_-- + + LINEAR PERSPECTIVE. With Illustrations. Post 8vo, cloth, 7s. + + PRACTICAL GEOMETRY. Post 8vo, cloth, 5s. + + DEFINITIONS OF GEOMETRY. Third Edition. 24mo, sewed, 5d. + +_CUBLEY (W. H.)_-- + + A SYSTEM OF ELEMENTARY DRAWING. With Illustrations and Examples. + Imperial 4to, sewed, 8s. + +_DAVISON (ELLIS A.)_-- + + DRAWING FOR ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS. Post 8vo, cloth, 3s. + + MODEL DRAWING. 12mo, cloth, 3s. + + THE AMATEUR HOUSE CARPENTER: A Guide in Building, Making, and + Repairing. With numerous Illustrations, drawn on Wood by the + Author. Demy 8vo, 10s. 6d. + +_DELAMOTTE (P. H.)_-- + + PROGRESSIVE DRAWING-BOOK FOR BEGINNERS. 12mo, 3s. 6d. + +_DICKSEE (J. 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Reproduced in Autotype. + Half-imperial, 36s. + + LESSONS IN SEPIA, 9s. per dozen, or 1s. each. + + SMALL SEPIA DRAWING COPIES, 9s. per dozen, or 1s. each. + +COLOURED EXAMPLES: + + A SMALL DIAGRAM OF COLOUR, mounted, 1s. 6d.; unmounted, 9d. + + TWO PLATES OF ELEMENTARY DESIGN, unmounted, 1s.; mounted, 3s. 9d. + + PETUNIA, mounted, 3s. 9d.; unmounted, 2s. 9d. + + PELARGONIUM, mounted, 3s. 9d.; unmounted, 2s. 9d + + CAMELLIA, mounted, 3s. 9d.; unmounted, 2s. 9d. + + GROUP OF CAMELLIAS, 12s. + + NASTURTIUM, mounted, 3s. 9d.; unmounted, 2s. 9d. + + OLEANDER, mounted, 3s. 9d.; unmounted, 2s. 9d. + + TORRENIA ASIATICA. Mounted, 3s. 9d.; unmounted, 2s. 9d. + + PYNE'S LANDSCAPES IN CHROMO-LITHOGRAPHY (6), each, mounted 7s. 6d.; + or the set, L2 5s. + + COTMAN'S PENCIL LANDSCAPES (set of 9), mounted, 15s. + + " SEPIA DRAWINGS (set of 5), mounted, L1. + + ALLONGE'S LANDSCAPES IN CHARCOAL (6), at 4s. each, or the set, L1 4s. + + 4012. BUNCH OF FRUIT, PEARS, &c., 4s. 6d. + + 4013. " " APPLES, 4s. 6d. + + 4014. " " WHITE GRAPES AND PLUMS, 4s. 6d. + + 4015. " " BLACK GRAPES AND PEACHES, 4s. 6d. + + 4016. " " PLUMS, MULBERRIES, &c., 4s. 6d. + + 4017. BOUQUET OF FLOWERS, LARGE ROSES, &c., 4s. 6d. + + 4018. " " ROSES AND HEARTSEASE, 3s. 6d. + + 4019. " " SMALL CAMELLIAS, 3s. 6d. + + 4020. " " POPPIES, &c., 3s. 6d. + + 4039. " " CHRYSANTHEMUMS, 4s. 6d. + + 4040. " " LARGE CAMELLIAS, 4s. 6d. + + 4077. " " LILAC AND GERANIUM, 3s. 6d. + + 4080. " " CAMELLIA AND ROSE, 3s. 6d. + + 4081. " " SMALL CAMELLIAS AND BLUE BELLS, 3s. 6d. + + 4082. " " LARGE DAHLIAS, 4s. 6d. + + 4083. " " ROSES AND LILIES, 4s. 6d. + + 4090. " " ROSES AND SWEET PEAS, 3s. 6d. + + 4094. " " LARGE ROSES AND HEARTSEASE, 4s. + + 4180. " " LARGE BOUQUET OF LILAC, 6s. 6d. + + 4190. " " DAHLIAS AND FUCHSIAS, 6s. 6d. + + + +SOLID MODELS, &c.: + + *Box of Models, L1 4s. + + A Stand with a universal joint, to show the solid models, &c., L1 + 18s. + + *One wire quadrangle, with a circle and cross within it, and one + straight wire. One solid cube. One skeleton wire cube. One sphere. + One cone. One cylinder. One hexagonal prism. L2 2s. + + Skeleton cube in wood, 3s. 6d. + + 18-inch Skeleton cube in wood, 12s. + + *Three objects of _form_ in Pottery: + + Indian Jar, } + Celadon Jar,} 18s. 6d. + Bottle, } + + *Five selected Vases in Majolica Ware, L2 11s. + + *Three selected Vases in Earthenware, 18s. + + Imperial Deal Frames, glazed, without sunk rings, 10s. + + *Davidson's Smaller Solid Models, in Box, L2. + + *Davidson's Advanced Drawing Models (10 models), L9. + + *Davidson's Apparatus for Teaching Practical Geometry (22 models), + L5. + + *Binn's Models for illustrating the elementary principles of + orthographic projection as applied to mechanical drawing, in box, + L1 10s. + + Vulcanite set square, 5s. + + Large compasses with chalk-holder, 5s. + + *Slip, two set squares and T square, 5s. + + *Parkes' case of instruments, containing 6-inch compasses with pen + and pencil leg, 5s. + + *Prize instrument case, with 6-inch compasses, pen and pencil leg, 2 + small compasses, pen and scale, 18s. + + 6-inch compasses with shifting pen and point, 4s. 6d. + + Small compass in case, 1s. + + * Models, &c., entered as sets, cannot be supplied singly. + + + + +LARGE DIAGRAMS. + + +ASTRONOMICAL: + + TWELVE SHEETS. Prepared for the Committee of Council on Education by + JOHN DREW, Ph. Dr., F.R.S.A. L2 8s.; on rollers and varnished, L4 + 4s. + +BOTANICAL: + + NINE SHEETS. Illustrating a Practical Method of Teaching Botany. By + Professor HENSLOW, F.L.S. L2; on canvas and rollers, and + varnished, L3 3s. + + ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE PRINCIPAL NATURAL ORDERS OF THE VEGETABLE + KINGDOM. By Professor OLIVER, F.R.S., F.L.S. 70 Imperial sheets, + containing examples of dried Plants, representing the different + Orders. L5 5s. the set. + + Catalogue and Index to Oliver's Diagrams, 1s. + +BUILDING CONSTRUCTION: + + TEN SHEETS. By WILLIAM J. GLENNY, Professor of Drawing, King's + College. In sets, L1 1s. + + LAXTON'S EXAMPLES OF BUILDING CONSTRUCTION IN TWO DIVISIONS: + + First Division, containing 16 Imperial Plates, 10s. + Second Division, containing 16 Imperial Plates, 10s. + + BUSBRIDGE'S DRAWINGS OF BUILDING CONSTRUCTION, 11 Sheets. Mounted, + 5s. 6d.; unmounted, 2s. 9d. + +GEOLOGICAL: + + DIAGRAM OF BRITISH STRATA. By H. W. BRISTOW, F.R.S., F.G.S. A Sheet, + 4s; mounted on roller and varnished, 7s. 6d. + +MECHANICAL: + + DIAGRAMS OF THE MECHANICAL POWERS, AND THEIR APPLICATIONS IN + MACHINERY AND THE ARTS GENERALLY. By DR. JOHN ANDERSON. + + This Series consists of 8 Diagrams, highly coloured on stout + paper, 3 feet 6 inches by 2 feet 6 inches, price L1 per set; + mounted on common rollers, L2. + + DIAGRAMS OF THE STEAM-ENGINE. By Professor GOODEVE and Professor + SHELLEY. + + These Diagrams are on stout paper, 40 inches by 27 inches, highly + coloured. + + The price per set of 41 Diagrams (52-1/2 Sheets), L6 6s. These + Diagrams can be supplied varnished and mounted on rollers at 2s. + 6d. extra per Sheet. + + EXAMPLES OF MACHINE DETAILS. A Series of 16 Coloured Diagrams. By + Professor UNWIN. L2 2s. + + SELECTED EXAMPLES OF MACHINES, OF IRON AND WOOD (French). By + STANISLAS PETTIT. 60 Sheets, L3 5s.; 13s. per dozen. + + BUSBRIDGE'S DRAWINGS OF MACHINE CONSTRUCTION (22). Mounted, 11s.; + unmounted, 5s. 6d. + + LESSONS IN MECHANICAL DRAWING. By STANISLAS PETTIT, 1s. per dozen; + also larger Sheets, being more advanced copies, 2s. per dozen. + + LESSONS IN ARCHITECTURAL DRAWING. By STANISLAS PETTIT. 1s. per + dozen; also larger Sheets, being more advanced copies, 2s. per + dozen. + +PHYSIOLOGICAL: + + ELEVEN SHEETS. Illustrating Human Physiology, Life size and Coloured + from Nature. Prepared under the direction of JOHN MARSHALL, + F.R.S., F.R.C.S., &c. Each Sheet, 12s. 6d. On canvas and rollers, + varnished, L1 1s. + + 1. THE SKELETON AND LIGAMENTS. + + 2. THE MUSCLES, JOINTS, AND ANIMAL MECHANICS. + + 3. THE VISCERA IN POSITION.--THE STRUCTURE OF THE LUNGS. + + 4. THE ORGANS OF CIRCULATION. + + 5. THE LYMPHATICS OR ABSORBENTS. + + 6. THE ORGANS OF DIGESTION. + + 7. THE BRAIN AND NERVES.--THE ORGANS OF THE VOICE. + + 8. THE ORGANS OF THE SENSES, Plate 1. + + 9. THE ORGANS OF THE SENSES, Plate 2. + + 10. THE MICROSCOPIC STRUCTURE OF THE TEXTURES AND ORGANS, Plate 1. + + 11. THE MICROSCOPIC STRUCTURE OF THE TEXTURES AND ORGANS, Plate 2. + + HUMAN BODY, LIFE SIZE. By JOHN MARSHALL, F.R.S., F.R.C.S. + + 1. THE SKELETON, Front View. + 2. THE MUSCLES, Front View. + 3. THE SKELETON, Back View. + 4. THE MUSCLES, Back View. + 5. THE SKELETON, Side View. + 6. THE MUSCLES, Side View. + 7. THE FEMALE SKELETON, Front View. + + Each Sheet, 12s. 6d.; on canvas and rollers, varnished, L1 1s. + + Explanatory Key, 1s. + +ZOOLOGICAL: + + TEN SHEETS. Illustrating the Classification of Animals. By ROBERT + PATTERSON. L2.; on canvas and rollers, varnished, L3 10s. + + The same, reduced in size, on Royal paper, in 9 Sheets, uncoloured, + 12s. + + + + +THE FORTNIGHTLY REVIEW. + +Edited by JOHN MORLEY. + + +THE FORTNIGHTLY REVIEW is published on the 1st of every month (the issue +on the 15th being suspended), and a Volume is completed every Six +Months. + +_The following are among the Contributors_:-- + + SIR RUTHERFORD ALCOCK. + PROFESSOR BAIN. + PROFESSOR BEESLY. + DR. BRIDGES. + HON. GEORGE C. BRODRICK. + SIR GEORGE CAMPBELL, M.P. + J. CHAMBERLAIN, M.P. + PROFESSOR CLIFFORD, F.R.S. + PROFESSOR SIDNEY COLVIN. + MONTAGUE COOKSON, Q.C. + L. H. COURTNEY, M.P. + G. H. DARWIN. + F. W. FARRAR. + PROFESSOR FAWCETT, M.P. + EDWARD A. FREEMAN. + MRS. GARRET-ANDERSON. + M. E. GRANT-DUFF, M.P. + THOMAS HARE. + F. HARRISON. + LORD HOUGHTON. + PROFESSOR HUXLEY. + PROFESSOR JEVONS + EMILE DE LAVELEYE. + T. E. CLIFFE LESLIE. + GEORGE HENRY LEWES. + RIGHT HON. R. LOWE, M.P. + SIR JOHN LUBBOCK, M.P. + LORD LYTTON. + SIR H. S. MAINE. + DR. MAUDSLEY. + PROFESSOR MAX MUeLLER. + PROFESSOR HENRY MORLEY. + G. OSBORNE MORGAN, Q.C., M.P. + WILLIAM MORRIS. + F. W. NEWMAN. + W. G. PALGRAVE. + WALTER H. PATER. + RT. HON. LYON PLAYFAIR, M.P. + DANTE GABRIEL ROSSETTI. + HERBERT SPENCER. + HON. E. L. STANLEY. + SIR J. FITZJAMES STEPHEN, Q.C. + LESLIE STEPHEN. + J. HUTCHISON STIRLING. + A. C. SWINBURNE. + DR. VON SYBEL. + J. A. SYMONDS. + W. T. THORNTON. + HON. LIONEL A. TOLLEMACHE. + ANTHONY TROLLOPE. + PROFESSOR TYNDALL. + THE EDITOR. + &c. &c. &c. + +THE FORTNIGHTLY REVIEW _is published at 2s. 6d._ + + + + CHAPMAN & HALL. 193, PICCADILLY. + + CHARLES DICKENS AND EVANS,] [CRYSTAL PALACE PRESS. + + + + +Transcriber's Note + +The following typographical errors were corrected. + + + Page Error + iv STREET HILL, changed to STREET HILL. + 6 have so thorougly changed to have so thoroughly + 32 accomplished animal. changed to accomplished animal, + 38 insurbordinate changed to insubordinate + 45 of a Pelham changed to of a Pelham. + 49 recover him self changed to recover himself + 80 you half sa changed to you half so + 86 combination of skill changed to combination of skill, + 104 manoeuvre ill changed to manoeuvre till + 112 and the liver changed to and the liver. + 118 "pluck' changed to "pluck" + 120 panicstricken changed to panic-stricken + 160 light man' changed to light man's + 193 Page 193 changed to Page 193. + 208 may turn you changed to may turn your + Ads 6 L1 4s changed to L1 4s. (below Experiences of a Planter...) + Ads 6 L1 8s changed to L1 8s. (below The Life and Times of Prince + Charles...) + Ads 9 [_In November_ changed to [_In November._ + Ads 11 3s. 6d changed to 3s. 6d. (below Struggle for National + Education) + Ads 12 SCHMID (HERMAN changed to SCHMID (HERMAN) + Ads 15 Civilisation,' changed to Civilisation," + Ads 16 [_In November_ changed to [_In November._ + Ads 25 WAS RIGHT changed to WAS RIGHT. + Ads 28 Sprays, 8d changed to Sprays, 8d. + Ads 31 FEMALE SKELETON changed to FEMALE SKELETON, + +The following words were inconsistently spelled or hyphenated. + + a-slant / aslant + black-thorn / blackthorn + clock-work / clockwork + down-hill / downhill + every-day / everyday + eye-lash / eyelash + Free-hand / Freehand + hand-gate / handgate + head-stall / headstall + lee-way / leeway + nose-band / noseband + race-course / racecourse + race-horse / racehorse + steeple-chase / steeplechase + thorough-bred / thoroughbred + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Riding Recollections, 5th ed., by +G. J. 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