8 The TetGOtt H^nt Oieek. 



returned in a state of great consternation, and cried 

 out, '' Why, measter, tes a steer ! " 



So it is well to be cautious in buying animals of 

 which you know little or nothing. But, I flatter 

 myself, I do know something about a horse. And I 

 have picked up four short-legged, well-bred hunters 

 that are said to be well up to their business, which, 

 I must confess, is more than I am. I can ride a 

 bit, and have had plenty of practice, as my father 

 always had some good horses, up to the time of his 

 death. I have a fair hand and seat, and am not 

 like our French Count who "when his horse did 

 not shomp sthraight did not remain." But I know 

 nothing of hunting, or of the way to negotiate the 

 enormous banks and fences of my native county. 



In consequence of my long residence abroad I am 

 almost a foreigner, and " a fox-hunt to a foreigner 

 seems strange." 



I would give anything to distinguish myself in this 

 noblest of all sports ; but, after three months' ex- 

 perience, I am not very skilful in crossing a country. 

 The bogs seem to beckon me into them, and the 

 banks make me giddy when I look down from their 

 top. The height of man and horse, added to that 

 of an eight-foot bank, gives a perpendicular drop of 

 sixteen feet, and allowing for deviation, say twenty 

 feet of space through which — should the order of 

 landing be head first, heels second — the head has to 



