Bogtrotting, etc, 95 



body ready for action, without coming to 

 grief; but that it is not so a walk with many 

 an Irish sportsman will testify. Some of these 

 latter are verily as much at home on the mor- 

 asses as on the hard highroad. I have seen 

 them striding, nay, running, over ground that 

 quivered for twenty yards on either side at 

 each step, without even going over ankles, 

 though they are absolutely unable to tell you 

 how it was done. Though far from being a 

 performer of this class, I can usually go where 

 any other Sassenach can go, and occasionally 

 manage places which are too much for the 

 average snipe-shooter ; and as something will 

 be expected from me on this head, I must 

 endeavour to put the aspiring bogtrotter on 

 the right track, even if I cannot promise to 

 preserve him always from an up-to-the-mlddle 

 subsidence into mother earth. 



To begin with, I believe that half the art 

 consists in keeping the knees bent, and in 

 never lifting the foot far from the ground. A 

 slouching, crouching, daisy-cutting style of gait 

 is the thing, the hinder foot being more 



