apt, when this is attempted, to yield his head to save his mouth, and then no assistance can be given. I grant light-mouthed horses are pleasant to ride; but heavy weights must look to everything that assists in carrying them, and not what is most showy or most pleasant. Again, pulling horses are generally animated, resolute ones: of course I do not mean a mere boring beast that leans on the hand from want of spirit to hold his great jolter head up himself. Boring and pulling widely differ in cause and effect. If a horse pulls, it is from animation of some sort; it may be from emulation or vice: but from whichever it proceeds, the animation is kept up, and that carries horse or man a long way even in difficulty. Why do we give a beaten man a glass of brandy? it cannot take the fatigue from his legs; but it gives a temporary fillip to sinking animation, and gives him spirit to bear the fatigue he is suffering: so, while the animation lasts in the horse, he bears fatigue also so long as his powers last; and I fear many riders think but little of the one so long as they can call upon the other. Even as a very moderate, I might say light, weight, I always preferred horses inclined to pull. I like horses to go very free at their fences; I do not mean to rush wildly at them; but I like a horse, that, if I once put him straight at a fence, which shows him I mean to take it, would give me some trouble in afterwards altering my mind; in short, I would rather he should go at it like a steam engine than be a hesitating devil. I hate a nervous timid horse as racer, hunter, harness horse, or anything else. It is true the whip and spurs may make such a horse face his fence; but then, it is from timidity; it almost amounts to cruelty to constantly

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apply them; and if from laziness, we hardly know when the priming is sufficient for the charge; whereas, with my sort, only keep fast hold of their heads, you have little to fear, unless you cannot keep fast hold of your saddle; and then I will tell such a gentleman how to avoid danger from this cause- stay at home; or do as a glorious cousin of mine always did by way of country manly exercise,-ride in a chariot with your wife. Now he lived within two miles of Hatfield House when the hounds there were in their glory. -I must be guilty of a piece of egotism here, for the credit of my breed, to make it publicly known, that, though relatives, our family were only on visiting terms quite intimacy enough with a man (and he a young one) who could perpetrate such an atrocity. Thank God! he was no nearer relation.

he

Though I am inclined in a general way to like a "from field to field horse," I do not mean to say would do in all countries: in parts of Essex he would break his neck or his rider's; and in the country I have lately mentioned, the Salisbury or Hertford, he would not do: in the first place, his powers would there be uncalled for, nay, they would be dangerous; but this does not alter my opinion, that, taking the average of countries, such a horse would give a man fewer falls than a sticky jumper. It may be said that these flyers exhaust themselves: I allow them to do so; but when the first edge is taken off them, they have sense enough to begin doing that at twice which in the first burst they would have taken "at one fell swoop" and if tired, they are then only what a sticky one is when fresh. It is a very bad fault in a horse taking six feet more at a brook than he need do; but it is a deuced deal better than six feet too few. Jumping

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JUST DOING IT, AND NO MORE.

a foot too high at a stiff gate is bad; let him jump three inches too low, probably the rider would be bad, too bad to leave his bed for some time. I once had a horse a capital fencer, but he always hit timber with his fore legs or feet, God knows which, and rap rap you always heard as he went over. He never gave me a fall during the two seasons I hunted him, but I always expected he would, and that is much worse than a purler or two a season, and at other times feeling the thing done neatly. Now as to hurdles he stood on very little ceremony with them: if gate hurdles, he generally broke the top rail; if wattled ones, he bent them till they made a nice little three-foot jump for him. But he was cunning enough after all never to hit stiff timber hard enough to get a roll, hurt himself, or me: still I could not like him altogether: I liked the price I sold him at much better: he went into Bedfordshire, and there he was tip-top, for he was capital in heavy ground.

I conceive one of the greatest apprehensions to be dreaded in these bounding leapers is, that, when fresh, they sometimes overleap themselves; and unless a man has a tolerably firm seat, and firm hold of them, they will come down on landing a regular burster : but then this is generally the rider's fault. Many hold their horse firm enough till he rises and is partly over; they then seem to think their work is done, and let him land as he can; whereas his alighting is the very moment when a man should throw himself a little back and hold his horse: here most men fail, and from the want of this habit of supporting your horse at the proper time, numberless serious, nay fatal, accidents occur, and will ever occur under such circumstances. If on a horse landing after

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taking a leap of fourteen or fifteen feet, and that perhaps a drop one, with a man on him, he does not require support, I cannot conceive any occasion on which he would.

It is rather singular that I should have left off writing at the word "would" on the Saturday evening, when on the next morning the Sunday Times gave me a truly lamentable proof that in this opinion of mine I am correct, by stating the accident to poor Smith, Lord Yarborough's huntsman, arising from the very habit I have been deprecating, namely, riding at fences with a loose rein, and suffering a horse to go carelessly or lazily at them. There is another great reason for having your seat and hands firm on your horse landing; he not only requires holding as a support, but the moment he has landed he wants a twist up to set him going again, otherwise he gets into the habit of losing time at every fence; and this habit, if fences come thick, tells greatly in a fast thing. Some horses lose no time at all at their fences; others lose a great deal: their getting the latter habit unquestionably in most cases has arisen from the fault of their riders.

In speaking and approving of the description of horse I have pointed out, I do not mean to say they are perhaps the pleasantest hunters, nor, if I hunted with harriers, or fox-hounds went the pace I conclude they formerly did, would I select such; but hunting has been, since I first rode to hounds, next kin to racing over a country; consequently I always for hunters selected what might be called race-horses that could jump; for where foxes are forced to fly, hounds bred to fly, and men disposed to fly, horses must fly too; and, in fact, the nearer a horse as a

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A HUNTER FOR THE GODS.

hunter approaches the steeple-chaser, the better hunter he is for our style of hunting. I remember hearing my father say that he once had a favourite hunter put in training for a hunter's stakes, which he won; but he declared, for twice the stakes he would not have had him trained, as it spoiled him as a hunter; and no doubt it did for a hunter of sixty years ago : but I doubt not what he considered as spoiling him, I should perhaps consider as having improved him. I have no doubt it taught him to go faster, and, with me, whatever makes a horse go faster than before improves him, though it is very probably attended with more trouble to myself; for unquestionably the nearer we bring a hunter in his style of going to the race-horse, the more will he want holding together. Still I hold it pleasanter, or I should say less annoying, to have my arms ache steering a flyer, than have my heart ache labouring along on a slow one. It may be said a perfect hunter should be as fast as a race-horse, fly his fences like a bird when wished, take timber with the bound of a deer when wanted, be a steady standing leaper, and do all this without making his master's arms ache, or giving him any trouble; in fact, do all this, and allow his rider to sit down in his saddle and smoke his cigar, looking with side-glance triumph at his less fortunate neighbours. This would certainly be perfect luxury, and the horse that could do it would be a perfect hunter: but such nags are verily not to be found tied up in bundles like asparagus. This, at one season of the year, is a tolerably expensive addition to lamb; but such hunters as I have supposed to exist would come to something more at any season. It is possible, by giving enormous prices, a man of 12st. may get a horse