220 NOTES ON FIELDS AND CATTLE. 



matters, as in all cases requiring the aid of intelli- 

 gence, be, after due consideration and listening, self- 

 reliant. You may fall often, but you will ultimately 

 walk. 



Rather should one not say to the intelligent and 

 industrious, as Northcote advised Leslie, when on 

 his first being made a Royal Academician he 

 thought fit to consult his companions, each one of 

 whom gave him different advice. "I told him," said 

 Leslie, " of my difficulties : that Wilkie and Law- 

 rence had just given me such extraordinary advice." 

 " Everybody," he said, " will advise you to do what 

 he himself would do, but you are to consider and 

 judge for yourself whether you are likely to do it as 

 he would, and if not, you may spoil your picture." 

 Do not, in fact, trouble yourself much what the 

 opinion of other people may be. Hear what they 

 say, and act upon your own subsequent interpreta- 

 tion of the circumstances. Neighbours are too apt 

 to regard your stock and crops through the wrong 

 end of the telescope, whereas they turn a strong lens 

 the right way on their own. You will get plenty of 

 cold water without this, so just dress your skin to 

 meet it. 



As the colts grow up you should have before their 

 sheds a leaping-bar covered with furze, which they 

 must cross to get out. Set it low at first : they will 

 soon learn to top it cleverly as an old hunter. Raise 

 it from time to time, as their jumping ability in- 

 creases, and when you have a spare half-hour tempt 

 them to you for a handful of vetches or a lump of 

 sugar, until they come to leap it at your bidding. 



