LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 



The Dorsetshire farmer's plan of teaching horses to jump timber . . 8 



" If he should drop his hind legs, shoot yourself off over his shoulders 

 in an instant, with a fast hold of the bridle, at which tug hard, 

 even though you may not have regained your legs " 32 



" Lastly, when it gets upon Bachelor, or Benedict, or Othello, or 

 any other high-flyer with a suggestive name, it sails away close, 

 often too close, to the hounds leaving brothers, husbands, even 

 admirers, hopelessly in the rear" {Frontispiece} 123 



" Perhaps we find an easy place under a tree, with an overhanging 

 branch, and sidle daintily up to it, bending the body and lowering 

 the head as we creep through, to the admiration of an indiscreet 

 friend on a rash horse who spoils a good hat and utters an evil 

 execration, while trying to follow our example " 138 



"When we canter anxiously up to a sign-post where four roads 

 meet, with a fresh and eager horse indeed, but not the wildest 

 notion towards which point of the compass we should direct his 

 energies, we can but stop to listen, take counsel of a country- 

 man, &c." 193 



At bay 208 



" ' Come up horse ! ' and having admonished that faithful servant with 

 a dig in the ribs from his horn, blows half-a-dozen shrill blasts in 

 quick succession, sticks the instrument, I shudder to confess it, in 

 his boot, and proceeds to hustle his old white nag at the best pace 

 he can command in the wake of his favourites " 225 



" The King of the Golden Mines " 242 



