112 RIDING RECOLLECTIONS. 



We will suppose two sportsmen are crossing a country 

 equally well mounted, and each full of valour to the 

 brim. A, to quote his admiring friends, " has the 

 pluck of the devil ! " B, to use a favourite expression 

 of the saddle-room, " has a good nerve. " Both are 

 bound to come to grief over some forbidding rails at a 

 corner, the only way out, in the line hounds are running, 

 and neither has any more idea of declining than had 

 poor Lord Strathmore on a similar occasion when Jem 

 Mason halloaed to him, " Eternal misery on this side 

 my lord, and certain death on the other ! " So they 

 harden their hearts, sit down in their saddles, and this 

 is what happens : 



A's horse, injudiciously sent at the obstacle, because 

 it is awkward, a turn too fast, slips in taking off, and 

 strikes the top-rail, which neither bends nor breaks, just 

 below its knees. A flurried snatch at the bridle pulls its 

 head in the air, and throws the animal skilfully to the 

 ground at the moment it most requires perfect freedom 

 for a desperate effort to keep on its legs. Rider and 

 horse roll over in an "imperial crowner," and rise to 

 their feet looking wildly about them, totally discon- 

 nected, and five or six yards apart. 



This is not encouraging for B, who is obliged to 

 follow, inasmuch as the place only offers room for one 



