CHAPTER X. 



ON HUNTING. 



** The sailor who rides on the ocean, 



Delights when the stormy winds blow : 

 Wind and steam, what are they to horse motion ? 



Sea cheers to a land .Tally-ho ? 

 The canvas, the screw, and the paddle, 



The stride of the thorough-bred hack, 

 When, fastened like glue to the saddle, 

 We gallop astern of the pack." 



TABPORLEY HUNT SONG, 1855. 



Advantage of hunting. Libels on. Great men who have hunted. 

 Popular notion unlike reality. Dick Christian and the Marquis of 

 Hastings. Fallacy of "lifting" a horse refuted. Hints on riding 

 at fences. Harriers discussed. Stag-hunting a necessity and use 

 where time an object. Hints for novices. Tally-ho ! expounded. 

 To feed a horse after a hard ride. - -Expenses of horse keep. Song 

 by Squire Warburton, " A word ere we start." 



EVERY man who can ride, and, living within a couple of 

 hours' distance of a pack of hounds, can 'spare a day 

 now and then, should hunt. It will improve his horse- 

 manship, enlarge his circle of acquaintance, as well as 

 his tastes and sympathies, and make, as Shakspeare 

 hath it 



" G-ood digestion wait on appetite, and health on both." 



Not that I mean that every horseman should attempt to 

 follow the hounds in the first flight, or even the second ; 

 because age, nerves, weight, or other good reasons may 



