40 RIDING RECOLLECTIONS. 



With increased facilities for locomotion, in the im- 

 provement of roads and coaches, hunting, always the 

 English gentleman's favourite pastime, became a fashion 

 for every one who could afford to keep a horse, and men 

 thought little of twelve hours spent in the mail on a 

 dark winter's night in order to meet hounds next day. 

 The numbers attending a favourite fixture began to 

 multiply, second horses were introduced, so that long 

 before the use of railways scarlet coats mustered by 

 tens as to-day by fifties, and the crowd, as it is called, 

 became a recognized impediment to the enjoyments of 

 the day. 



Meantime fences were growing in height and thick- 

 ness ; an improved system of farming subdivided 

 the fields and partitioned them off for pastoral or 

 agricultural purposes ; the hunter was called upon to 

 collect himself, and jump at short notice, with a 

 frequency that roused his mettle to the utmost, and this 

 too in a rush of his fellow-creatures, urging, jostling, 

 crossing him in the first five minutes at every turn. 



Under such conditions it became indispensable to have 

 him in perfect control, and that excellent invention, the 

 double-bridle, came into general use. 



I suppose I need hardly explain to my reader that it 

 loses none of the advantages belonging to the snaffle, 



