280 HUNTING MISERIES: 



bestride represent most of the different classes of 

 horseflesh one sees out hunting in the provinces. 

 Unhke most artists who have represented scenes of 

 the hunting-field, Leech never drew one " sealed- 

 pattern " horse, and never made his riders sit each 

 in exactly the same fashion. He was not perhaps 

 always equally happy in the delineation of the noble 

 animal, and the cheeks of the bit he placed in its 

 mouth, when he caparisoned it with a double bridle, 

 were invariably absurdly long. But the life, spirit, 

 and humour of the chase he seized unfailingly, and 

 charmed us by the truth and atmosphere of the little 

 bit of landscape he always introduced. A large 

 engraving of the " frolic home " hangs upon my wall, 

 and is irresistibly drawing me from my subject, but 

 I am chiefly struck by the joviality and hearty 

 enjoyment betrayed by the countenance of every in- 

 dividual in the picture. Even the face of the stolid 

 rustic, hurrying out of the way of the youth with 

 the hunting-cap, who, finger to ear, executes a view- 

 holloa as he passes, combines amusement with 

 alarm ; and the gentleman whose horse has refused 

 the hurdles with disgraceful abruptness seems enter- 

 tained by the performance. The very back of the 

 stout yeoman, whose good " family horse " is flipping 

 over the obstacle, somehow expresses enjoyment ; 

 indeed there is infectious merriment about the whole 

 scene. 



How different — how very different — from the 

 dejected crew that lately wound their way home- 

 wards after the first blank day I had seen for a 

 long time. In these days sportsmen all over the 



