NERVE. 245 



afraid, Sir," replied the Colonel," and if you were as 

 much afraid as I am, you would run away / " It may, 

 however, be consoling to ladies who are battling against 

 loss of nerve, to hear that I have known brilliant horse- 

 men lose their nerve so utterly that they were unable to 

 take their horses out of a walk. With quiet practice their 

 good nerve returned again, and they have ridden as 

 well as ever. Nerve in riding is recoverable by prac- 

 tice on a very confidential horse. Some men give their 

 wives or daughters horses which are unsuitable for 

 them, and which they are unable to manage. Is it any 

 wonder that such ladies have their nerve entirely shat- 

 tered in their efforts to control half-broken, violent 

 brutes of horses ? It is customary to blame ladies who 

 are unable to control their horses in the hunting field ; 

 but the men who supply them with such animals are, in 

 many cases, the more deserving of censure. There are 

 men, not many, I hope, who consider it unnecessary for 

 their womenkind to learn to ride before they hunt ; but 

 no one has a right to thus endanger the lives of others. 

 Such ladies possess plenty of pluck, but not the neces- 

 sary knowledge to guide their valour to act in safety. 

 A Master of hounds told me that his nerve was so bad 

 that he positively prayed for frost ! At the end of one 

 season he gave up the hounds ; but he is again hunting 

 them, so his nerve must have become strong. Mr. 

 Scarth Dixon, writing on this subject, says : "It is a 

 curious quality, that of nerve. A man's nerve, by which 

 I mean his riding nerve, will go from him in a day ; it 

 will sometimes, but not frequently, come back to him as 



