LIBRARY 
 
 itY o' C 
 
 IRVINE^
 
 Of this Edition of Why te- Melville s 
 Works Ten Hundred and Fifty 
 Copies only have been printed by 
 Morrison and Gibb Limited, Edin- 
 burgh, who have distributed the type
 
 THE WORKS OF 
 
 G. J. WHYTE-MELVILLE 
 
 EDITED BY 
 
 SIR HERBERT MAXWELL, BART. 
 
 VOLUME I.
 
 RIDING RECOLLECTIONS
 
 RIDING 
 RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 BY 
 
 y> - 
 
 t? <F 
 
 G. J. WHYTE-MELVILLE 
 
 WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY HUGH THOMSON 
 
 LONDON 
 W. THACKER & CO., 2 CREED LANE, E.C. 
 
 CALCUTTA: THACKER, SPINK & CO. 
 1898 
 
 All rightt ruer-vcd
 
 SK
 
 DEDICATED 
 
 ON BEHALF OF 
 
 "THE BRIDLED AND SADDLED 
 
 TO THZ 
 
 "BOOTED AND SPURRED"
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 T is a great misfortune to English 
 literature that the pencil of John 
 Leech never lent its aid to the pen 
 of Why te- Melville, an alliance of 
 author and artist as natural as the 
 memorable one between Boz and 
 Phiz. They were contemporary: 
 each excelled in the delineation of the 
 chase : each delighted in portraying the 
 most charming phases of young womanhood and 
 the graces and foibles of young men. It is 
 doubtful whether John Jorrocks and the rest of 
 Surtees' inimitable gallery would ever have 
 become the very household gods of the hunting- 
 box had Leech not been enlisted to enliven the 
 chronicle by his art. But Whyte-Melville was 
 a careless author ; he cared little, that is, for the 
 form in which his books were published. Writing 
 for his own amusement and that of his friends, 
 he devoted all the proceeds of his labour to 
 philanthropic and charitable ends, especially to 
 the establishment and maintenance of reading- 
 rooms and other means of recreation for grooms 
 
 xi
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 and stable-boys. He seems to have had none of 
 that parental conceit in his work that renders a 
 writer fastidious about paper, type, and other 
 bibliographic millinery, reflecting in that respect the 
 indifference he always showed in his own costume; 
 for although he was extremely critical about the 
 dress of others, and was an acknowledged arbiter 
 of how a man should be turned out for hunting, 
 he himself never wore in the field anything more 
 elaborate than a black coat and hunting boots. 
 
 It is not too late to attempt an edition of 
 Whyte-Melville's writings more worthy of their 
 quality than those which have gone before. 
 These novels may not rank high as "human 
 documents " which seems to be the term applied 
 to stories of the failure of energy and common- 
 sense to steer a character through ordinary 
 temptation and the results of puzzle-headedness ; 
 they may be deficient in variety of characters 
 represented, the same types recurring under 
 different names in successive combinations ; the 
 problems presented for solution may fade into 
 insignificance before some of those with which 
 certain more recent writers entertain their readers. 
 But as long as chivalry in man and tenderness 
 in maid have any hold upon English readers 
 as long as people take delight in descriptions of 
 honest love-making, adventure and field sports, 
 or find amusement in gentle satire of well-to-do 
 
 xii
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 folk and kindly raillery at the foibles of all classes 
 as long as the public is not too critical to enjoy 
 pictures of the general prevalence of good over 
 evil in the world as we have it so long shall 
 Why te- Melville find high favour with wholesome 
 minds. 
 
 The son of a Scottish laird Mr. John Whyte- 
 Melville, of Mount Melville in Fife J. G. 
 Whyte-Melville was born in 1821, and went, in 
 process of time, to Eton, after the manner of 
 many of his kind. The reputation of Eton for 
 scholarship never, perhaps, exceedingly high, was 
 probably at its lowest in the "thirties"; yet, as 
 has happened to other boys who have passed in 
 and out of her gates without distinction, young 
 George acquired in that school a loving reverence 
 for Latin writers which endured throughout his 
 life and left its stamp on all his writings. 
 
 In 1839 he obtained a commission in the army, 
 and, having exchanged into the Coldstream 
 Guards in 1846, retired in 1*849. Five years 
 later, on war being declared with Russia, he 
 volunteered for active service, and was employed 
 throughout the campaign as a major of Turkish 
 Irregular Cavalry. Returning to England after 
 peace was declared, Whyte-Melville indulged 
 his passion for country life, and generally spent 
 the winter in hunting quarters in Leicestershire 
 and Northamptonshire, latterly in Gloucestershire ; 
 
 xiii
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 while in summer he was most often to be found 
 on the links of his native St. Andrews in days 
 before golf had fired, as an apocalypse, the fancies 
 of men besouth the Tweed. Himself a bold and 
 good horseman, very modest withal, he was 
 always more disposed to turn an appreciative eye 
 on the performances of others than to invite 
 attention to his own. 
 
 Many a story is told even now of his quiet 
 humour and old-fashioned, never-failing courtesy. 
 One day, as he stood at the edge of the pavement, 
 waiting to cross an excessively muddy street, a 
 lady's carriage drew up smartly in front of a shop 
 before which he was standing, splashing him from 
 head to foot with filthy mire, an assault of a kind 
 calculated to upset the equanimity of the mildest 
 of men. 
 
 "Oh, Major Melville," exclaimed the lady, a 
 friend of his, " I am so sorry." 
 
 " It doesn't matter a bit," said he ; "I always 
 say you drive the best-actioned horses in London." 
 
 Readers of Why te- Melville's novels cannot 
 fail to be struck by a constantly recurring note 
 of melancholy which runs through them all, 
 especially in reference to women. Therein may 
 be traced the effect of his own lifelong dis- 
 appointment. It behoves one to deal reverently 
 with the domestic life, even of the departed, but 
 it was matter of common knowledge to all his 
 
 xiv
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 acquaintance that his marriage did not turn out 
 happily. Probably there were faults on both 
 sides in what quarrel can it be said that there 
 are not ? At all events one seems to recognise 
 some consciousness of this and unavailing regret 
 in such passages as the following, spoken by 
 " Uncle John " to Algernon Lealey, who was 
 about to marry : 
 
 " There is but one bit of advice I can give. Don't start with too 
 exalted an idea of your goddess. She must come down from her 
 pedestal sometimes. . . . When she does not agree with you, don't 
 be provoked with her because she is your wife, but listen to her 
 courteously, though she is talking nonsense, as you would to any 
 other lady. . . . Above all, never attempt to reason with her as 
 you would with a man." 
 
 Passages of similar significance may be found 
 in all the novels, but perhaps nowhere do these 
 feelings receive such clear expression as in the 
 remarkable budget of essays entitled Bones 
 and I : 
 
 " If Coelebs (in search of a wife) expects to find a perfection 
 really exist which he thinks he has discovered while dazzled by the 
 glamour surrounding a man in love, he deserves to be disappointed, 
 and he generally is. ... What is it we expect to find ? In this 
 matter of marriage, more than in any other, our anticipations are 
 so exorbitant that we cannot be surprised if our come-down is dis- 
 heartening in proportion. 
 
 4 Where is the maiden of mortal strain, 
 That may match with the Baron of Triermain ? 
 She must be lovely, constant and kind, 
 Holy and pure, and humble of mind," etc. 
 
 XV
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 " Yes, she must be all this, and possess a thousand other good 
 qualities, many more than are enumerated by lago, so as never to 
 descend for a moment from the pedestal on which her baron has 
 set her up. Is this indulgent is it even reasonable? Can he 
 expect any human creature to be always dancing on the tight 
 rope ? . . . Men are very hard in the way of exaction on those 
 they love. All ' take ' seems their motto, and as little ' give ' as 
 possible. If they would but remember the golden rule, and expect 
 no more than should be expected from themselves, it might be a 
 better world for everybody." 
 
 And then, as if recollecting that the short- 
 coming had not been all on his own side, Whyte- 
 Melville ends the colloquy with Bones, by making 
 his fleshless companion observe 
 
 " I never knew but one woman who could understand reason, 
 and she -wouldn't listen to it! " 
 
 For an unprofessional writer, Why te- Melville's 
 literary diligence was remarkable. Few men, 
 who, like him, were independent of and indifferent 
 to the pecuniary fruits of their labour, would have 
 cared to undergo the drudgery necessary to pro- 
 ducing twenty-eight separate works in twenty-six 
 years. But Why te- Melville was a born story- 
 teller, and from the first he never lacked an 
 audience. Man of the world in the best sense, 
 he gave the impression of one who never lost 
 consciousness of something beyond the world. 
 His writings abound in passages of true philo- 
 sophy, not less profound because expressed in 
 terms suggestive of levity. Perhaps the chapter 
 
 xvi
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 on "Gourds" in Bones and I \s as characteristic 
 of his style as any that could be chosen. He 
 excelled as a delineator of the phases of fashion- 
 able life, and enjoyed an advantage over many 
 novelists who attempt to deal with it, in that his 
 perfect and daily familiarity with its ways and 
 peculiarities steered him clear of those blunders 
 which so often raise a smile at the expense of 
 observers less perfectly qualified than Whyte- 
 Melville. 
 
 But he was at his best and therein almost 
 unrivalled in describing the incidents of the 
 hunting-field. " Nimrod " could stir the pulses of 
 his readers by recounting the business of the 
 chase and the performance of individuals ; Surtees 
 had the knack of throwing a lifelike picture on 
 the screen and imparting a sense of wind and 
 weather, of scents and sounds, of life and move- 
 ment in the open air and a wild country. But 
 neither of them had the secret of Whyte-Melville's 
 glamour, which invested the rapturous reality 
 with an air of romance and gave to technical 
 details the momentous import of the operations of 
 war ; neither of them kept before his readers, as 
 Whyte-Melville did, the ideal of a cultivated, 
 accomplished, lofty-minded, warm-hearted English 
 gentleman. To him must be given the palm 
 among all who have hitherto celebrated the 
 glories of the noblest among British field sports. 
 
 xvii
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 Whyte-Melville's end came in the way which, 
 had the choice rested with him, he probably 
 would have preferred. He had rented a small 
 house at Tetbury in Gloucestershire, which a 
 friend once criticised as being too near the 
 churchyard. 
 
 "Perhaps it is," replied Whyte-Melville, "for 
 some tastes ; but the closer the better for a hunt- 
 ing man : they will not have so far to carry him." 
 
 Careless, almost flippant words, but of un- 
 foreseen significance. Not long afterwards, on 
 the 5th of December 1878, the speaker was out 
 with the Vale of White Horse hounds. They 
 had found a fox, but were still in cover ; Whyte- 
 Melville, stealing forward for a start, was 
 galloping along the grass headland of a ploughed 
 field on a favourite hunter, the Shah. No one 
 saw what happened ; the good horse must have 
 crossed his legs and fallen on his rider, who was 
 found stone dead. They took him to his little 
 house in Tetbury, whence, to repeat his own 
 words, they had " not so far to carry him," when 
 they laid him in the churchyard hard by. 
 
 There was one high-minded gentleman the less 
 in this world one generous soul the more among 
 
 the shades. 
 
 HERBERT MAXWELL. 
 
 MONREITH, 1898. 
 
 xviii
 
 THE following is a complete list of Whyte- 
 Melville's writings, with the dates of their first 
 publication : 
 
 Digby Grand . -1853 
 General Bounce . . 1854 
 Kate Coventry . . 1856 
 The Arab's Ride to Cairo 1858 
 The Interpreter . .1858 
 Holmby House . . 1860 
 Good for Nothing . . 1861 
 Market Harborough . 1861 
 Tilbury Nogo . . 1861 
 The Queen's Maries . 1862 
 The Gladiators . . 1863 
 The Brookes of Bridle- 
 mere .... 1864 
 Cerise .... 1866 
 The White Rose . . 1868 
 
 Bones and I . . . 1868 
 
 M. or N. . . . 1869 
 
 Songs and Verses . . 1869 
 
 Contraband . . . 1870 
 
 Sarchedon . . .1871 
 
 The True Cross . .1873 
 
 Satanella . . . 1873 
 
 Uncle John . . . 1874 
 
 Katerfelto . . .1875 
 
 Sister Louise . . . 1875 
 Rosine .... 1875 
 
 Riding Recollections . 1875 
 
 Roy's Wife . . . 1878 
 
 Black but Comely . . 1879 
 (posthumous) 
 
 XIX
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 CHAP. PAGE 
 
 I. KINDNESS ...... 3 
 
 II. COERCION . . . . . .12 
 
 III. THE USE OF THE BRIDLE .... 32 
 
 IV. THE ABUSE OF THE SPUR .... 56 
 
 V. HAND ....... 68 
 
 VI. SEAT ....... 89 
 
 VII. VALOUR ....... 103 
 
 VIII. DISCRETION . . . . . .119 
 
 IX. IRISH HUNTERS . . . . . .137 
 
 X. THOROUGH-BRED HORSES . . . 155 
 
 XI. RIDING TO FOX-HOUNDS . . , 171 
 
 XII. RIDING AT STAG-HOUNDS . . . .193 
 
 XIII. THE PROVINCES . . . . . . 2IO 
 
 XIV. THE SHIRES . . . . . . 22$ 
 
 XXI
 
 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 HALF A DOZEN SHRILL BLASTS . . Coloured Frontispiece 
 
 CHOKING A NARROW HAND GATE 26 
 
 WATCHING HIS PERFORMANCES FROM THE ROAD . . 80 
 
 HANDING HIS HORSE OVER 84 
 
 ACCEPT THE RIDICULE, AND GRASP THE MANE ! . . 92 
 
 BREAKING THE TOP RAIL WITH A HIND LEG . . Il6 
 
 "I'VE SPOILT MY HAT, I'VE TORN MY COAT" . . 130 
 
 "THIS STRANGELY EQUIPPED PAIR" 152 
 
 THE OLD COACHMAN PILOTING HER CHILDREN . . 1 86 
 
 "WHILE YOU SMOKE A CIGAR" 198 
 
 "A MOUTHFUL OF GRUEL" 204 
 
 "POISED IN AIR" 214 
 
 XX111
 
 AUTHOR'S PREFACE 
 
 S in the choice of a horse and a wife 
 a man must please himself, ignor- 
 ing 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 understand- 
 ing, and surrounding circumstances. 
 Courage must not be heated to recklessness, 
 caution should be implied rather than ex- 
 hibited, 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 
 B
 
 AUTHOR'S PREFACE 
 
 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 re- 
 membered 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." 
 
 xxvi
 
 RIDING RECOLLECTIONS
 
 RIDING RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 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 
 goodwill. 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 
 
 3
 
 RIDING RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 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 develop- 
 ment 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 in- 
 struction. From the day you slip a halter over his 
 ears he should be encouraged to look to you, like 
 
 4
 
 KINDNESS 
 
 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 re- 
 marked 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, 
 
 5
 
 RIDING RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 'but I may remark in the meantime 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 
 
 o 
 
 which nurses and children call " cupboard love." 
 Like many amiable characters on two legs, the 
 quadruped is shy of acquaintances but genial with 
 
 6
 
 KINDNESS 
 
 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 pro- 
 gress, 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 im- 
 parted 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 
 
 7
 
 RIDING RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 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 ever}' 
 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 in- 
 formant ; " 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. 
 
 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 
 
 8
 
 KINDNESS 
 
 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 Button'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 deter- 
 mined 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 goodwill, adding in the same 
 breath, while he leapt to the saddle, and Tranby 
 
 9
 
 RIDING RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 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 un- 
 usually 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 exhibi- 
 tion of prowess at the Islington horse show has 
 made his shrewd, comical face so familiar to the 
 public that his name, without further 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 
 
 10
 
 KINDNESS 
 
 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 yoiir 
 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 ! 
 
 ii
 
 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 
 
 o 
 
 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 
 
 12
 
 COERCION 
 
 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 
 
 13
 
 RIDING RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 temporise, and try to win by diplomacy the terms 
 we dare not wrest by force. If the latter alter- 
 native 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 thoroughbred 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 a speed in any direction where there is 
 room for a gallop. Blown, startled, and intimi- 
 dated, 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, how- 
 ever, 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 acquire- 
 ment can scarcely be called a lesson. 
 
 This is why the hunting-field is such a good 
 school for leaping. Horses of every kind are
 
 COERCION 
 
 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 inconveni- 
 ence 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 applica- 
 tion 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 
 c 15
 
 RIDING RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 mere volition of a creature so much smaller and 
 feebler than itself, it seemed to acknowledge 
 some mysterious and overmastering 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 accom- 
 modate 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 them- 
 selves in the saddle. It can hardly be called 
 
 16
 
 COERCION 
 
 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 nth 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 indica- 
 tions 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 judg- 
 ment, 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 
 
 17
 
 RIDING RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 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 deter- 
 mined 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 un 
 
 18
 
 COERCION 
 
 comfortable 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 com- 
 fortably 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 breastplate, 
 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 
 
 19
 
 RIDING RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 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. 
 
 20
 
 COERCION 
 
 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. 
 
 21
 
 RIDING RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 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 
 
 22
 
 COERCION 
 
 > 
 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 begin- 
 ning 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 down- 
 fall, 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 
 
 23
 
 RIDING RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 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 oppor- 
 tunity, 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 thoroughbred 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 measur- 
 ing his leap. The best riders prefer such an 
 
 24
 
 COERCION 
 
 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 consider- 
 ation for his prejudices. The boldest sportsmen 
 
 25
 
 RIDING RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 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 
 
 26
 
 COERCION 
 
 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 
 
 27
 
 RIDING RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 without a refusal or a fall. The cutting-whip has 
 been applied, and the result, perhaps, was dis- 
 appointing, 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 warn- 
 ing ; he will take good care to cover distance 
 enough next time. Dispense with your leader 
 
 28
 
 COERCION 
 
 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 
 
 29
 
 RIDING RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 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 in to 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 him- 
 self, 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. 
 
 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 
 
 30
 
 COERCION 
 
 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. 
 
 D 31
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 THE USE OF THE BRIDLE 
 
 late Mr. Maxse, celebrated some fifty 
 years ago for a fineness of hand that en- 
 abled 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 hand- 
 kerchief 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, 
 
 32
 
 THE USE OF THE BRIDLE 
 
 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 en- 
 deavours 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 re- 
 markable conceits, generally painful, have been 
 
 33
 
 RIDING RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 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 
 
 34
 
 THE USE OF THE BRIDLE 
 
 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 licence 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 
 
 35
 
 RIDING RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 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 horseman- 
 ship, 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 grand- 
 fathers 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 pro- 
 genitors 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 representa- 
 tions of the chase in our midland counties, notably 
 
 36
 
 THE USE OF THE BRIDLE 
 
 Leicestershire and Northamptonshire, then only 
 partially enclosed ; 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 passion for everyone 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, 
 
 37
 
 RIDING RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 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 recognised impediment to the 
 enjoyments of the day. 
 
 Meantime fences were growing in height and 
 thickness; an improved system of farming sub- 
 divided 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. 
 
 38
 
 THE USE OF THE BRIDLE 
 
 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 progres- 
 sion. 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 
 
 39
 
 RIDING RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 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 
 
 40
 
 THE USE OF THE BRIDLE 
 
 bridoon rein, you can no longer indicate approval. 
 To avoid its control he must lean on the dis- 
 comfort 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 breastplate 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
 
 RIDING RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 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 snafHe, 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 
 
 42
 
 THE USE OF THE BRIDLE 
 
 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- 
 
 43
 
 RIDING RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 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 
 
 44
 
 THE USE OF THE BRIDLE 
 
 powerful conventional double-bridle with no less 
 docility than the most sedate of his stable com- 
 panions. 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 
 
 45
 
 RIDING RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 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 con- 
 
 46
 
 THE USE OF THE BRIDLE 
 
 sideration 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 beHeve, 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 accom- 
 plishment 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 
 E 47
 
 RIDING RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 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 school- 
 master, 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- 
 
 48
 
 THE USE OF THE BRIDLE 
 
 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 con- 
 ditions. 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 
 
 49
 
 RIDING RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 minutes over an enclosed 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 adver- 
 saries, 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. 
 
 50
 
 THE USE OF THE BRIDLE 
 
 "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 dcole, 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 
 
 Si
 
 RIDING RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 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 
 
 52
 
 THE USE OF THE BRIDLE 
 
 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- 
 
 53
 
 RIDING RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 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. i 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 
 
 54
 
 THE USE OF THE BRIDLE 
 
 get the mastery. Whilst living in Northampton- 
 shire 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. 
 
 55
 
 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" 
 
 AYS 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 racecourse 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 repug- 
 
 56
 
 THE ABUSE OF THE SPUR 
 
 nance 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 goodwill. 
 
 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 sportsmen 
 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 
 
 57
 
 RIDING RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 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 anyone 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 
 
 58
 
 THE ABUSE OF THE SPUR 
 
 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 
 fireside, 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 
 
 59
 
 RIDING RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 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 horse- 
 men spur their horses without meaning it ; many 
 worse, mean to spur their horses at every fence, 
 and do. 
 
 A Leicestershire notability, of the last genera- 
 tion, once dubbed a rival with the expressive title 
 
 60
 
 THE ABUSE OF THE SPUR 
 
 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 m the animal rather than sagacity 
 in the rider, and a strong instinct of self-preserva- 
 tion 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 
 
 61
 
 RIDING RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 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 red- 
 dened 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 counter- 
 balance 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 two hundred sports- 
 
 62
 
 THE ABUSE OF THE SPUR 
 
 men 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 downhill a bad take-off and almost 
 a ravine on the far side ! With his powerful 
 F 63
 
 RIDING RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 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 some- 
 times 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 in- 
 admissible, 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 steeplechase 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 
 
 64
 
 THE ABUSE OF THE SPUR 
 
 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 equita- 
 
 65
 
 RIDING RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 tion, 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 
 
 66
 
 THE ABUSE OF THE SPUR 
 
 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 horse- 
 manship 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," 
 68
 
 HAND 
 
 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 
 
 69
 
 RIDING RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 consideration so to manage the rein we handle as 
 never to give our horse the opportunity of dis- 
 covering 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 
 
 70
 
 HAND 
 
 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 surpris- 
 ing from an inferior performer, his friend, who 
 was also in the habit of riding anything, any- 
 where, 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
 
 RIDING RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 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 
 
 72
 
 HAND 
 
 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 
 
 73
 
 RIDING RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 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, head- 
 strong 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 
 
 74
 
 HAND 
 
 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 horseman- 
 ship 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 
 
 75
 
 RIDING RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 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 horse- 
 manship 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 
 
 76
 
 HAND 
 
 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 ex- 
 ceedingly temperate man ; for many years I 
 believe he drank only water, and he eschewed 
 tobacco in every form. "The reason you gentle- 
 men 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 
 
 77
 
 RIDING RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 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 him- 
 self 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 com- 
 bination 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 
 
 78
 
 HAND 
 
 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 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. 
 G 79
 
 RIDING RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 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-i 
 bound stile, on to some stepping-stones, with a 
 drop of six or seven feet, into a Leicestershire 
 
 80
 
 tfti* PP, 
 
 -d V -'?
 
 HAND 
 
 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 anyone 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 
 
 Si
 
 RIDING RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 " 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 racecourse, 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 
 
 82
 
 HAND 
 
 "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 race- 
 horse 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 steeple- 
 chase 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." 
 
 83
 
 RIDING RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 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 accom- 
 plished 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 
 
 84
 
 HAND 
 
 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 
 
 85
 
 RIDING RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 he was, had, as we know, a cork leg, and its 
 oscillation no doubt interfered with those niceties 
 of horsemanship in which he delighted. Never- 
 theless at the twentieth trial he succeeded, and a 
 large crowd, collected to watch him, seemed glad 
 of an opportunity to give their Waterloo here 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 tcole, 
 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 
 
 86
 
 HAND 
 
 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 dexter- 
 ously, 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 ! 
 
 87
 
 RIDING RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 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. 
 
 88
 
 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 
 
 89
 
 RIDING RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 he go smooth, I am" x 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 circum- 
 stances permit. 
 
 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 unaccus- 
 tomed 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 
 
 1 y_y suis. 
 90
 
 SEAT 
 
 horse as much as possible, in dread, maybe, 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,
 
 RIDING RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 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-com- 
 panions ; 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 con- 
 sidered 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 gentlemen 
 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 learned to canter round 
 
 92
 
 SEAT 
 
 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 daresay most of us can remember the 
 mechanical horse exhibited in Piccadilly some ten 
 or twelve years ago, a German invention, remark- 
 able 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 com- 
 municating through the floor with the machinery 
 that set in motion and regulated its astonishing 
 vagaries. On mounting, the illusion was complete. 
 
 93
 
 RIDING RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 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 
 
 94
 
 SEAT 
 
 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 ex- 
 pressed surprise at the consummate horsemanship 
 displayed by many of his fallen visitors, and ad- 
 mitted that more than one rough-rider would have 
 tired out and subjugated any living creature of 
 real flesh and blood ; while the essayists univer- 
 sally 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 
 H 95
 
 RIDING RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 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 sports- 
 men, 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 perpen- 
 dicular, 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, 
 
 96
 
 SEAT 
 
 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 con- 
 venient egress, to make use of which, with a little 
 skill and prudence, is a less hazardous experiment 
 
 97
 
 RIDING RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 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. 
 
 98
 
 SEAT 
 
 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 con- 
 strained, 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, notwith- 
 standing 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 arm-chair. 
 
 99
 
 RIDING RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 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 
 
 ICO
 
 SEAT 
 
 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 racecourse, 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 
 
 101
 
 RIDING RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 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 down- 
 fall 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. 
 
 102
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 
 VALOUR 
 
 " T T E that would venture nothing must not 
 A A 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 
 
 103
 
 RIDING RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 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 
 
 104
 
 VALOUR 
 
 slight percentage of daring and resolution com- 
 pared 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 exceed- 
 ingly 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 yoic 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 
 
 105
 
 RIDING RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 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 
 
 106
 
 VALOUR 
 
 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 oi 
 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 
 
 107
 
 RIDING RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 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. More- 
 over, 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. 
 108
 
 VALOUR 
 
 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 
 
 109
 
 RIDING RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 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 downhill, 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 
 
 1 10
 
 VALOUR 
 
 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 inde- 
 pendent 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 
 i in
 
 RIDING RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 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 
 
 112
 
 VALOUR 
 
 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 eyelash. Except timber, of which 
 the risk is obvious at a glance, nothing frightens
 
 RIDING RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 the faff-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 
 
 114
 
 VALOUR 
 
 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.
 
 RIDING RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 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 boat- 
 man in the Channel told me he saw a lady swim- 
 ming 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 
 
 116
 
 VALOUR 
 
 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 
 117
 
 RIDING RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 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 ffame 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. 
 
 118
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 
 DISCRETION 
 
 T T has been called the better part of valour, and 
 * doubtless, when wanting, the latter is as 
 likdy 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 ubi- 
 quitous 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 daresay, 
 can recall occasions on which we have been so 
 
 119
 
 RIDING RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 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 for- 
 gotten 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 
 
 120
 
 DISCRETION 
 
 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 
 
 121
 
 RIDING RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 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 waggonette. 
 
 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 
 curac^oa. 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 observa- 
 tion. If you do catch a glimpse of them, how 
 
 122
 
 DISCRETION 
 
 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 enclosure may mean a 
 bullfinch with two ditches at the other end. 
 
 Perhaps you will find yourself ahead of everyone 
 123
 
 RIDING RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 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 praterea 
 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. 
 
 124
 
 DISCRETION 
 
 "Are you a hard rider?" asked an inquiring 
 lady of Mr. Jorrocks. 
 
 " The hardest in England," answered that face- 
 tious 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 super- 
 fluity 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 
 
 125
 
 RIDING RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 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 accom- 
 plished 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. 
 
 126
 
 DISCRETION 
 
 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 underbred, or the distressed horse 
 conies down like a lump of lead, and neither 
 K 127
 
 RIDING RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 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 intel- 
 lectual 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 
 
 128
 
 DISCRETION 
 
 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 lord- 
 ship's horse, after an unusually long and fatiguing 
 
 129
 
 RIDING RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 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 
 
 130
 
 Sie S^otff" m,y naLt~; Jve ibr
 
 DISCRETION 
 
 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! 
 
 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 indis- 
 creet 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
 
 RIDING RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 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 
 
 132
 
 DISCRETION 
 
 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 in- 
 equalities 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 
 
 133
 
 RIDING RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 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 footpath, 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 
 
 134
 
 DISCRETION 
 
 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 
 als6, through a sentiment of sheer obstinacy that 
 would not be denied, and humanity should at 
 least think shame to be outdone 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 triumph- 
 ant 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 
 
 135
 
 RIDING RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 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. 
 
 136
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 
 IRISH HUNTERS 
 
 " A ^' n i yer i a *d an * ron to ^ e s d " 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 jump- 
 ing, 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 or capital beyond the labour of a 
 
 137
 
 RIDING RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 man, or, as he is there called, "a boy," with a 
 short pipe in his mouth and a spade in his hand. 
 The light-hearted operative, gay, generous, reck- 
 less, 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 enclosure to the next. I ought never- 
 theless 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 
 
 138
 
 IRISH HUNTERS 
 
 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 inter- 
 ference 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 
 
 139
 
 RIDING RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 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 
 140
 
 IRISH HUNTERS 
 
 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 
 eyesight, 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 sports- 
 man 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 overstates the truth 
 
 141
 
 RIDING RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 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-manage- 
 ment, 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 
 
 142
 
 IRISH HUNTERS 
 
 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 incon- 
 venience 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 
 L 143
 
 RIDING RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 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 in- 
 congruous, 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 sports- 
 man ; 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 Hartley, 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 ; 
 
 144
 
 IRISH HUNTERS 
 
 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 
 
 H5
 
 RIDING RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 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 
 
 146
 
 IRISH HUNTERS 
 
 minutes' repose for breathing or 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 surmount- 
 ing 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
 
 RIDING RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 by the "oxers" and doubles that form such 
 unwelcome exceptions to the usual run of impedi- 
 ments 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 limestone 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 Ranks- 
 borough, the Coplow, Crick, Melton - Spinney, 
 Christmas - Gorse, Great - Wood, or any other 
 favourite covert in one of our many good hunt- 
 
 148
 
 IRISH HUNTERS 
 
 ing 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, some- 
 times even climbing to the wished-for side. The 
 front rank itself will probably shirk these un- 
 accustomed 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 
 
 149
 
 RIDING RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 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 dis- 
 appoint 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. 
 
 150
 
 IRISH HUNTERS 
 
 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
 
 RIDING RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 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 ensure 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 
 152
 
 IRISH HUNTERS 
 
 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, catch- 
 ing 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 
 
 ' 153
 
 RIDING RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 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 illus- 
 trious 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 ! " 
 
 154
 
 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 remark- 
 able 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," 
 155
 
 RIDING RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 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 short- 
 comings 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. 
 
 156
 
 THOROUGH-BRED HORSES 
 
 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 rnouth, and a loose neck, hardly inspires a 
 careful man with the confidence necessary for 
 enjoyment ; coming away from Ranksborough, 
 for instance, downhill, 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 
 
 157 *
 
 RIDING RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 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 steeplechase, 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 
 steeplechaser, properly sobered and brought into 
 
 158
 
 THOROUGH-BRED HORSES 
 
 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 dis- 
 qualified 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 steeplechase 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 
 M 159
 
 RIDING RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 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. 
 
 o 
 
 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 
 
 1 60
 
 THOROUGH-BRED HORSES 
 
 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, immortalised in the famous 
 Billesdon Coplow poem, when 
 
 " Villiers esteemed it a serious b'ore, 
 That no longer could Shuttlecock fly as before," 
 
 was a clean thorough-bred horse, fast enough to 
 have made a good figure on the racecourse, 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 
 
 161
 
 RIDING RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 not far from Melton, at seventy-three, told me 
 that his 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 gentle- 
 man 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 
 
 162
 
 THOROUGH-BRED HORSES 
 
 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 bygone time, but a man 
 need not look very narrowly into any knot of 
 
 163
 
 RIDING RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 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. 
 
 164
 
 THOROUGH-BRED HORSES 
 
 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 hare-hunting over the wilder 
 pursuit of the fox, is in the circles described by 
 
 165
 
 RIDING RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 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 
 
 166
 
 THOROUGH-BRED HORSES 
 
 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, for- 
 getting, 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 molehill 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 
 
 167
 
 RIDING RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 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, cczteris 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, with- 
 out 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 
 
 1 68
 
 THOROUGH-BRED HORSES 
 
 "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 extra- 
 ordinary 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 
 
 169
 
 RIDING RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 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 genera- 
 tions, 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 someone 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." 
 
 170
 
 CHAPTER XI 
 
 RIDING TO FOX-HOUNDS 
 
 T F you want to be near hounds," says an old 
 
 A friend of mine who, for a lifetime, 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 
 171
 
 RIDING RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 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 
 overrun. 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 impart- 
 ing 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 
 
 172
 
 RIDING TO FOX-HOUNDS 
 
 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 interfer- 
 ing 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 hunts- 
 man'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
 
 RIDING RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 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 over- 
 come ; 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 
 
 174
 
 RIDING TO FOX-HOUNDS 
 
 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 
 N 175
 
 RIDING RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 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 
 
 176
 
 RIDING TO FOX-HOUNDS 
 
 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 extra- 
 ordinary 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 com- 
 paratively 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 
 
 177
 
 RIDING RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 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 
 
 178
 
 RIDING TO FOX-HOUNDS 
 
 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 
 eds:es, and the brink of a brook is most reliable 
 
 o 
 
 close to some pollard or alder bush, particularly 
 on the upper side, as Mr. Bromley Davenport 
 
 179
 
 RIDING RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 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 lifetime, 
 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 footpath, 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. 
 Enclosed 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 
 
 1 80
 
 RIDING TO FOX-HOUNDS 
 
 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, 
 
 181
 
 RIDING RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 every yard of which they make good, with noses 
 down and sterns working as if from the concen- 
 trated 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 
 
 182
 
 RIDING TO FOX-HOUNDS 
 
 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 com- 
 manding position in front, nor self-denial to be 
 satisfied with an unassuming retirement in rear. 
 
 o 
 
 His valour and discretion are improperly mixed, 
 like bad punch, and fatal is the result. A timely 
 pull means simply the difference between breath- 
 lessness 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." 
 
 Now, with all due deference to the old sports- 
 man, 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 
 
 183
 
 RIDING RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 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 un- 
 wittingly 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 
 
 184
 
 RIDING TO FOX-HOUNDS 
 
 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 ballroom : 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 farther 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 per- 
 formance of the pack, the difference between "a 
 beautiful turn" and "an unlucky check." The 
 
 185
 
 RIDING RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 very rush of your gallop alongside them will 
 tempt high-mettled hounds into the indiscretion 
 of overrunning 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 everyone 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 con- 
 comitant 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." 
 
 1 86
 
 /A " 
 
 ( 9?l<
 
 RIDING TO FOX-HOUNDS 
 
 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 
 
 187
 
 RIDING RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 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 
 
 1 88
 
 RIDING TO FOX-HOUNDS 
 
 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 temper- 
 ately 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. 
 
 189
 
 RIDING RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 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. 
 
 190
 
 RIDING TO FOX-HOUNDS 
 
 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 compli- 
 ments 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 
 o 191
 
 RIDING RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 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. 
 
 192
 
 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 ex- 
 perienced 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 
 
 193
 
 RIDING RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 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, en- 
 larged 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 
 
 194
 
 RIDING AT STAG-HOUNDS 
 
 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, spread- 
 ing its rich mantle of purple under skies of gold. 
 We could dwell for pages on the associations 
 connected with such classical names as Badge- 
 worthy-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 
 combe will soon put you in your right place, and 
 you will be grateful for the most trifling hint that 
 
 195
 
 RIDING RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 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 ! 
 
 196
 
 RIDING AT. STAG-HOUNDS 
 
 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 sagaci- 
 ously, their hands skilfully, and their heels scarcely 
 at all. To their experience I am indebted for the 
 following little hints which I have found service- 
 able 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, 
 
 197
 
 RIDING RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 watching the hounds while they thread a thousand 
 intricacies of rock, heather, and scattered copse- 
 wood, so as to meet them when they emerge, 
 whic^ they will surely do on the upper level, for 
 it is the nature of their quarry to rise the hill 
 a-slant, 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 com- 
 pletely 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. 
 
 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 
 
 198
 
 </ 

 
 RIDING AT STAG-HOUNDS 
 
 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 himseli 
 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 
 
 199
 
 RIDING RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 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, not- 
 withstanding 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 
 
 200
 
 RIDING AT STAG-HOUNDS 
 
 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, notwith- 
 standing. 
 
 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. 
 
 20 1
 
 RIDING RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 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 ts, 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 
 
 202
 
 RIDING AT STAG-HOUNDS 
 
 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. 
 
 203
 
 RIDING RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 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 pas- 
 time 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 entreat 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 
 
 204
 
 o{ ffraef
 
 RIDING AT STAG-HOUNDS 
 
 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 
 
 205
 
 RIDING RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 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 
 
 206
 
 RIDING AT STAG-HOUNDS 
 
 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 neighbour- 
 hood 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 racecourse, 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 
 p 207
 
 RIDING RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 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 
 
 208
 
 RIDING AT STAG-HOUNDS 
 
 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. 
 
 209
 
 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 cer- 
 tainty 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 con- 
 trived 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. 
 
 210
 
 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 
 
 211
 
 RIDING RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 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 steeplechase horse 
 with the wrong bridle in his 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. 
 
 212
 
 THE PROVINCES 
 
 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 latchkey," and curls himself 
 up in some dry, warm nook amongst the brush- 
 wood, 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 
 
 213
 
 RIDING RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 stands to listen, a perfect picture, with one pad 
 raised and his cunning head a-slant. Yes, he 
 recognised 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 conscious- 
 ness 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. 
 
 214
 
 THE PROVINCES 
 
 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 ! " ex- 
 claims 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 glitter- 
 ing, 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 
 
 215
 
 RIDING RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 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 
 hearthstone, 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 
 
 216
 
 THE PROVINCES 
 
 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 what not, 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. 
 
 217
 
 RIDING RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 " 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 
 
 218
 
 THE PROVINCES 
 
 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 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, 
 
 219
 
 RIDING RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 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, 
 cceteris 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 Northampton- 
 shire. 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 every- 
 thing 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 
 
 220
 
 THE PROVINCES 
 
 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 
 
 221
 
 RIDING RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 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 
 
 222
 
 THE PROVINCES 
 
 fun. Each has its own claim to distinction, some 
 have collars, all have sport. 
 
 Grass, I imagine, is the one essential that con- 
 stitutes 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 in- 
 different 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 
 Q 223
 
 RIDING RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 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. 
 
 224
 
 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 steeplechaser, the courage of 
 a lion and the activity of a cat! For the first 
 mile or two pristine virtutis hand immemor 
 he bears him gallantly enough, even the unaccus- 
 
 225
 
 RIDING RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 tomed 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 adminis- 
 tered, 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 : 
 
 226
 
 THE SHIRES 
 
 " Did you get away with them from the Punch- 
 bowl?" ' 
 
 "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 
 
 227
 
 RIDING RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 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 
 
 228
 
 THE SHIRES 
 
 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 tw r o 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 reproach- 
 ful outcries resound in the rear because of 
 Harmony's narrow escape the King's fore foot 
 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 it 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 clown their noses, holding his 
 
 229
 
 RIDING RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 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 dis- 
 tracted 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 
 230
 
 THE SHIRES 
 
 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 farmhouse 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 
 
 231
 
 RIDING RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 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 
 ,350 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. 
 
 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 sur- 
 mount. 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 
 
 232
 
 THE SHIRES 
 
 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 hunts- 
 man comes up, followed by two others, one of 
 whom, pulling out his watch, with a delighted face 
 repeats frantically, " Seven-and-twenty minutes, 
 
 233
 
 RIDING RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 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-conscious- 
 ness, 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 implica- 
 tion his own determined riding in a tribute to 
 " The King of the Golden Mines." 
 
 But such extravagancies are studiously re- 
 pudiated 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 
 
 234
 
 THE SHIRES 
 
 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 con- 
 siderably 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. Every- 
 thing is comparative. With forty or fifty horse- 
 men 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 Dllke 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 nin 
 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- 
 
 235
 
 RIDING RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 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 oppor- 
 tunity 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, in- 
 deed, 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. 
 
 236
 
 THE SHIRES 
 
 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 blackthorn 
 hedge, strong enough to hold an elephant, with 
 one, and sometimes two ditches, fortified, more- 
 over, 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 
 
 237
 
 RIDING RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 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 
 
 238
 
 THE SHIRES 
 
 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 tin 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 everyday 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 infini- 
 tesimal amount of danger to life and limb. Kind- 
 R 239
 
 RIDING RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 ness, 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 vita 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 
 
 240
 
 THE SHIRES 
 
 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 
 
 241
 
 INDEX 
 
 Anger derogatory to dignity of 
 man, 12. 
 
 Angerstein, of Weeting, horseman- 
 ship, 54. 
 
 Anglesey, Lord, riding hack round 
 corner of Albemarle Street, 85. 
 
 Arab foal, docility of, 8. 
 
 Author, experience in horseman- 
 ship, 2. 
 
 Author's mare, 5. 
 
 Aylesbury, Vale of, 148. 
 
 Carted deer hunted in, 200, 201. 
 
 B 
 
 Baucher, principles of equine educa- 
 tion, 52, 86. 
 Beaufort, Duke of, aptitude for 
 
 fox-hunting, 177. 
 Belvoir hounds, 211, 212. 
 
 Killing by moonlight, 235. 
 Benvolio, Sir Charles Knightley's 
 
 hunter, 161. 
 Billesdon Coplow poem quoted, 
 
 161, 225. 
 
 Bissett, stag-hounds, 195. 
 Bissett, stag-hunting, 197. 
 Bit, half-moon, 55. 
 Bit, importance of its fitting, 18. 
 Blackmoor Vale, Lord Wolverton's 
 
 hounds in, 207. 
 Blackmoor Vale under pasture, 
 
 223. 
 Bower, Rev. John, leap over stile 
 
 and stepping-stones, 80. 
 
 Boyce, Captain, not using spurs, 
 
 62. 
 
 Brendon, 199. 
 
 Bridle, control by means of, 70. 
 Bridle, use of, 32 seq. 
 Bridoon, 39. 
 
 Brood mare in Ireland, 140. 
 Brooks, crossing, 114. 
 Byron quoted on wolf, 196. 
 
 C 
 
 Cardigan, Lord, narrow escapes 
 
 from drowning, 112. 
 Cardigan, Lord, valour, in. 
 Carington, Lord, riding at timber, 
 
 23- 
 
 Carted deer, hunting, 201. 
 
 Challenger, 214, 215. 
 
 Charmer, 215, 217. 
 
 Chifney, treatise on handling, 83. 
 
 Coercion for rash horse, 18 ; for 
 "slug," 24. 
 
 Cooke, John, on Sir Charles Knight- 
 ley training Sir Marinel, 161. 
 
 Cooke, William, Advance owned 
 by, 162. 
 
 Cottesmore, 236. 
 
 Coventry, Captain 
 Jumping brook at Melton 
 
 Steeplechase (1864), 84. 
 Not using spurs, 62. 
 On use of spurs, 64. 
 
 Cox, Fred, as huntsman, 201. 
 
 Crick, 148. 
 
 Curb-bit, 39. 
 
 Custance, qualities as jockey, 18. 
 
 243
 
 INDEX 
 
 Davenport, Bromley, quoted, 180, 
 
 240. 
 
 Day's run in the provinces, 213 seq. 
 Deer- 
 Capricious, 207. 
 Describing series of circles, 203. 
 Going to water, 203. 
 Dene, of Barnstaple, stag-hunting, 
 
 197. 
 
 Discretion, 119 seq, 
 Dorsetshire farmer's system of 
 
 teaching timber-jumping, 7. 
 Double-bridle, 38. 
 Dunchurch double-bridles, Nos. i 
 
 and 2, 54. 
 
 Dunkery Beacon, 199. 
 Dwyer, Major, bridle, 54. 
 
 E 
 
 Eclipse, 196. 
 
 Elgin Marbles, Greek riders, 35. 
 
 Without stirrups, 92. 
 Exmoor characteristics, 198. 
 Exmoor pony in bog, 4. 
 
 Fairfax, on bridle, 33. 
 
 Falls, 239. 
 
 Fellowes, of Shottisham, riding at 
 timber, 22. 
 
 Fences in Pytchley country, 237. 
 
 Firr, Tom, leaping, 76. 
 
 Fordham on use of spurs, 56. 
 
 Fox- 
 Going to water, 203. 
 Travelling down wind, 1 75. 
 Wiles practised by, 190. 
 
 Fox-hounds, riding to, 171 seq. 
 Anticipating a check, 185. 
 Hard roads, when useful, 1 88. 
 Hounds quartering their ground 
 181. 
 
 Fox-hounds, riding to, contd. 
 
 Huntsman's horse, work done by, 
 182. 
 
 Huntsman's pilotage to be fol- 
 lowed, 173. 
 
 Intuitive perception of " line of 
 chase," 176. 
 
 Judicious choice of ground essen- 
 tial, 178. 
 
 Keeping near hounds, 171, 181. 
 
 Old sportsman's advice, 183. 
 
 Returning after run, advice on, 
 101. 
 
 " Riding on their line," 175. 
 
 Start, advice on, 172. 
 
 Viewing fox, 185, 186. 
 
 Water to be avoided, 188. 
 
 Wild sport, 211. 
 
 Fraser, Colonel, horsemanship, 17. 
 Froissart, knights in saddle, 90. 
 
 Gag, 48. 
 
 Gardner, Lord, approval of Major 
 
 Dwyer's bridle, 54. 
 Gardner, Lord, leap over rails, 
 
 HO. 
 George iv., opinion of Colonel 
 
 Wyndham, 128. 
 Gillard, 236. 
 
 Gilmour, not using spurs, 62. 
 Gilmour, riding at timber, 22. 
 Gilmour's Vingt-et-un, 162. 
 Glynn, Sir Richard, 208. 
 Goddard, picture of Lord Wolver- 
 
 ton's hounds, 205. 
 Goodall, Will, senior and junior, 237. 
 Grass, where found, 223. 
 Greaves, Mackenzie, horsemanship, 
 
 Si, 86. 
 Greenwood, Colonel, illustration 
 
 of riding, Si- 
 Hunting with single curb-bridle, 6. 
 Grey, Lord, riding at timber, 22. 
 Grimston, on dismounting, 200. 
 Gurney, Richard, on "Sober 
 Robin," 169. 
 
 244
 
 INDEX 
 
 H 
 
 Hand, 68 seq. 
 
 A gift, not an acquirement, 69. 
 Qualities comprised under, 68, 80, 
 
 82, 88. 
 
 Harborough country, 239. 
 " Hard Bargain," 55. 
 Hare - hunting as school for 
 
 thorough-breds, 165. 
 Head, Sir Francis, on danger in 
 
 battle and hunting, 105, 113. 
 Holderness, level ploughs of, 225. 
 Horses 
 
 Accommodate themselves to rider 
 
 who subjugates one, 16. 
 "Boring," 48. 
 Discretion most valuable quality 
 
 in, 135. 
 
 Docile nature, 40. 
 Eastern, broktn with severe bits, 
 
 45- 
 
 Game qualities of English, 158. 
 Good understanding between 
 
 rider and, 16. 
 Habit of obedience, 6, 14. 
 Hack, advice on hunting on, 12 1. 
 Intellect to be cultivated, 4. 
 "Leicestershire horse," 225. 
 Mechanical, in Piccadilly, 93 seq. 
 Position of fore feet in action, 79. 
 Rash horse, ad vice on riding, iSseq. 
 "Refusing," 65. 
 Sensitive and highly-strung, 3. 
 "Slug," management required 
 
 by, 24. 
 
 Wall-jumping, 132. 
 Yearling, 158. 
 Young, apt to swerve, 74. 
 Young horse in bog, 3. 
 (See also Irish Hunters 
 Thorough-bred Horses.) 
 Horse-breakers not varying 
 
 system, 45. 
 Horsemanship 
 Art of, 53. 
 
 Every rider his own system, 80. 
 First principles of, 70. 
 Qualities necessary for, I, 2, II 
 12, 13, 239, 240. 
 
 and 
 their 
 
 Horsewoman, style adopted by, 
 
 72. 
 
 Howcott, Mark, whip, 201. 
 Hunter, qualities for perfect, 31. 
 Hunters not really fond of jumping, 
 
 187. 
 
 Hunting 
 
 Advice on start on hack, 121 seq. 
 Fields to be avoided, 134. 
 Second horses introduced, 38. 
 Hunting- field 
 As school for cavalry officers, 
 
 178. 
 
 As school for leaping, 14. 
 " What kills is the pace," 156. 
 Hunting in provinces and shires, 
 
 219-224, 225, seq. 
 "Hunting parsons," 82. 
 Hunting pictures of Leicestershire 
 and Northamptonshire, 36. 
 
 Ireland, fences in, 137. 
 
 Ireland, no cart-horse blood till 
 
 recently, 154. 
 Irish horse-breaking, 142. 
 Irish hunters, 137 seq. 
 Accoutrements, 144. 
 At stone-gap, 145. 
 Difficulty of buying, 152. 
 Experience needful in judging, 
 
 151. 
 
 Go shortest way, 149. 
 In shires, 147, 148. 
 Jumping 146 ; 
 
 "at short notice," 149. 
 Objection to, 152, 153. 
 Style of jumping, 137, 139. 
 System for training "an ac- 
 complished lepper," 15. 
 Timber-jumping, 147. 
 "Training," 140, 142. 
 Well-bred, 153. 
 
 Irishmen, natural insight into char- 
 acter of horse, 142. 
 Irishmen ride with light bridle, 73, 
 139. 
 
 245
 
 INDEX 
 
 J 
 
 Jersey, Lord, on Shuttlecock's dis- 
 inclination to jump, 161, 162. 
 
 Jersey, Lord, riding at timber, 23. 
 
 "John Gilpin" quoted, 71. 
 
 Johnston, Sir Frederic, not using 
 spurs, 62. 
 
 "Jorrocks" as hard rider, 125. 
 
 "Jorrocks" on seat, 89. 
 
 Judicious coercion, 15. 
 
 Jumping, advice on, 75, 78. 
 
 Jumping timber, 22 ; examples of 
 different methods, 22, 23. 
 
 Juvenal, metaphor from horses, 154. 
 
 K 
 
 "King of the Golden Mines," 228. 
 Kingsley, Charles, " Knight's Last 
 
 Leap at Alten-ahr " quoted, 68. 
 Knight, stag-hunting on Exmoor, 
 
 199. 
 Knightley, Sir Charles, training 
 
 "Sir Marinel," 160. 
 
 Ladies in hunting-field, advice to, 
 
 117, 118. 
 Ladies' pluck in riding, example 
 
 of, 115. 
 
 Ladies using spur, 60. 
 Lawrenson, General, horsemanship, 
 
 Si, 86. 
 
 Leg-power, use of, in riding, 72. 
 Liverpool, pace and distance of the, 
 
 158- 
 
 Lovell, of New Forest, horseman- 
 ship, 17. 
 
 Lovell, invention for bridoon, 39. 
 
 Lowther, Hugh, not using spurs, 62. 
 
 M 
 
 Man's supremacy over beasts, reason 
 of, 1 6. 
 
 "Mars," Lord Cardigan's hunter, 
 
 in. 
 
 Martingale unknown to Greeks, 35. 
 Mason, Jem 
 
 Instructions to beginner, 73. 
 
 Using spurs, 64. 
 
 Warning to Lord Strathmore, 
 
 106. 
 
 Matthew's tactics, 214, 219. 
 Maxse, fineness of hand, 32. 
 Mayo, Lord 
 
 Horse ridden with Pytchley, 169. 
 
 Horsemanship, 129. 
 
 Story of Irish attendant, 130. 
 Mechanical horse in Piccadilly, ac- 
 count of, 93 seq. 
 Melton-Spinney, 148. 
 
 Hounds killing by moonlight in, 
 
 235- 
 
 Melton Steeplechase (1864), 84. 
 Melton, weighing hunters at, 168. 
 Mesmer, disciples of, 16. 
 Mexican spurs, 67. 
 Middleham Moor, 156. 
 Miles, Colonel, jumping six-foot 
 
 fence, 132. 
 Morgan, Ben, story of, 9. 
 
 N 
 
 Nerve and pluck, 104, 107. 
 Newmarket Heath, 156. 
 Nimrod on horses' strength, 167. 
 Nose - band, author's prejudice 
 against, 19. 
 
 
 
 Oriental cavalry soldier, position in 
 saddle, 90. 
 
 Payne, Charles, on "natural death " 
 of foxes, 189. 
 
 Pearson, General, charging timber, 
 22. 
 
 Pelham bridle unpopular in Eng- 
 land, 42. 
 
 246
 
 INDEX 
 
 Plato, 99. 
 
 Pluck and nerve, 104, 107. 
 Portman, stag-hunting, 208. 
 Portman, with fox-hounds, 184. 
 Powell riding over high timber, ill. 
 Presence of mind necessary for 
 
 riding, II. 
 Provinces, 210 seq. 
 Pytchley, finest hunting country in 
 England, 236. 
 
 Quorn, 236. 
 Fences, 225. 
 Hounds, 211, 212 
 
 R 
 
 Ranksborough, coming from, 148, 
 
 157- 
 
 Rarey and judicious coercion, 15. 
 Reins, long, advantages of, 73. 
 Reins, loose, question of, 50. 
 Rider, rule for position of, 97, 100. 
 Riding 
 
 Attitudes adopted in, 90. 
 
 Round corners, advice on, 85. 
 
 Two-handed, 74. 
 Rothschild, Baron, hunting-bridge 
 
 over Rowsham, 188. 
 Rothschild, Baron, stag-hounds, 
 
 195- 
 Rothschild, Leopold, hunting carted 
 
 deer, 201. 
 Rothschild, Sir Nathaniel, hunting 
 
 carted deer, 200, 201. 
 Rotten Row, riding in, 85. 
 Rowsham forded by bullocks, 188. 
 Russell, Rev. John, stag-hunting, 
 
 197. 
 
 Saddle, open or plain-flapped, 96. 
 
 Facility for moving leg in, 97. 
 Saddles, padded versus open, 96 seq. 
 
 Seat, 89 seq. 
 
 How to obtain firm, 101. 
 Strong, 101. 
 Shires, 225 seq. 
 
 Run in, 227 seq. 
 Shuttlecock, Billesdon Coplow 
 
 poem quoted on, 161. 
 " Sir Marine!," Sir Charles Knight- 
 ley's hunter, 160. 
 Smith, Assheton 
 Diagonal jump, 126. 
 On knowing how to fall, 238. 
 Riding at timber, 23. 
 Style of riding, 107. 
 Smith, Captain Arthur, horseman- 
 ship, 1 08. 
 Smith, Captain Arthur, riding at 
 
 timber, 22. 
 Smith, Tom, skill and daring of, 
 
 1 08. 
 
 Snaffle, 34. 
 Somerset, Granville, stag-hunting, 
 
 197, 199. 
 Spencer, Lord, as Master of the 
 
 Pytchley, 236. 
 
 Spencer, Lord, horsemanship, 6. 
 Sportswomen, 116, 117. 
 Spur 
 
 Abuse of, 56 seq. 
 
 For hack, 59. 
 
 In riding-schools, 57. 
 
 Inconvenient when rider is down, 
 
 66. 
 
 Why used in hunting-field, 62, 63. 
 Stag-hounds, riding at, 193 seq. 
 " Combes," 197. 
 Hounds to have plenty of room, 
 
 204. 
 
 No fixed rules for, 193. 
 On Exmoor, 195. 
 " Riding the deer," 204. 
 Running compared with fox- 
 hounds, 196. 
 " Tufting," 199. 
 
 Steeplechase riders' fine hands, 83. 
 Stirrup, length of, 91. 
 Stone-gap, Ireland, 145. 
 Stour, River, good friend to deer, 
 
 208. 
 Strathmore, Lord, 106. 
 
 247
 
 INDEX 
 
 Sutton, Sir Richard, on Whitenose, 
 
 163. 
 Sutton, Sir Richard, story of run 
 
 with the Cottesmore, 9. 
 
 Tailby's hounds near Ram's Head, 
 
 no. 
 Thompson, Anstruther, as M.H., 
 
 Thorough-bred horses, 
 
 Apparent size and weight, 168. 
 
 Eccentricities, 156. 
 
 Lethargy disappears in run, 164. 
 
 Noted, 160 seq. 
 
 Superior as hunters, 170. 
 
 Tuition of, 159. 
 
 Tomline, " Cap, " horsemanship, 76. 
 Tomline, of Leigh Lodge, costume 
 in hunting-field, 63. 
 
 Valour, 103 seq. 
 
 W 
 
 Warburton quoted on hunting, 
 
 213- 
 
 Webster, Dick, sketch of, 10. 
 "William of Deloraine" quoted, 
 
 1 02. 
 Williams, Captain Percy, riding 
 
 without stirrups, 101. 
 Wilton, Lord- 
 Leaping, 76. 
 
 On speed in fox-hunting, 179. 
 Riding at timber, 22. 
 Wolverton, Lord 
 
 Blood-hounds, 195, 204, 205. 
 Crossing the Thames, 112. 
 Stag-hunting, 205, 209. 
 Wood, of Brixworth Hall, horse 
 
 ridden by, 169. 
 
 Worcester, Lord, aptitude for fox- 
 hunting, 177. 
 Wyndham, Colonel, black mare of, 
 
 169. 
 
 Wyndham, Colonel, leaping in 
 Leicestershire, 128. 
 
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