BREEDING OF HUNTERS. 293 



Mr. Hugh Bruce Campbell speaks thus of the " Not- 

 tingham Squire's" riding,* in a very spirited memoir: 



" Although one of the most determined riders that 

 ever got across a horse, Mr. Musters was not a grace- 

 ful horseman : he put the saddle too near the chine, 

 and was wont to remark that the saddle could not be 

 too forward for hunting, nor too backward for the 

 road. His mode of getting over a country was pecu- 

 liar, especially during the last twenty-five years that 

 he hunted : he rarely took a leap flying; he either made 

 his horse jump standing, or he thrust him through 

 the fence ; timber of course he could not so treat, 

 and when he was obliged to charge it, he always put 

 his horse at it, however high and strong, at as quick 

 a trot as the animal could go, but never at a gallop, 

 or even a canter if the horse could possibly be re- 

 strained to a trot ; for he said that at a trot the horse 

 can always measure his ground, and when to make 

 his rise; but at a gallop or a canter he might get too 

 near, and be unable to recover himself. He never, 

 or very rarely, struck his horse at going at a fence, 

 and strongly objected to it, for he said, ' the whip or 

 the hand up directed the horse's eyes and attention 

 behind him instead of before hence many a mistake 

 at a fence, for which the rider only was responsible.' 



"At a brook his axiom was, if only two yards wide, 

 you could not go too fast, for it was always soft light- 

 ing: by riding full gallop at a brook the horse's heart 

 was prevented from failing him at the sight of water, 

 and thus he got safe over by his own impetus and 

 spring ; when ten to one, by the rider going slowly 

 at it, the horse would thence infer danger, and refuse 

 altogether. 



" His weight (from 40) induced his establishing 

 the above close mode of riding over or through fences. 

 The skins of his horses' legs were pricked ; but the 



* Sporting Review, January, 1850. 



