VALOUR. 113 



at a time, but as soon as his leader is out of the way, 

 he comes steadily and quietly at the leap. His horse 

 too, slips in the tracks of its fallen comrade, but as it 

 is going in a more collected form, it contrives to get its 

 fore-legs over the impediment, which catches it, how- 

 ever, inside the hocks, so that, balancing for a moment, 

 it comes heavily on its nose. During these evolutions, 

 B sits motionless in the saddle, giving the animal com- 

 plete liberty of rein. An instinct of self-preservation 

 and a good pair of shoulders turn the scale at the last 

 moment, and although there is no denying they " had 

 a squeak for it" in the scramble, B and his horse 

 come off without a fall. 



Now it was pluck that took both these riders into the 

 difficulty, but nerve that extricated one of them without 

 defeat. 



I am not old enough to have seen the famous Mr. 

 Assheton Smith in the hunting-field, but many of my 

 early Leicestershire friends could remember him per- 

 fectly at his best, when he hunted that fine and 

 formidable country, with the avowed determination, 

 daily carried out, of going into every field with his 

 hounds ! 



The expenditure of valour, for it really deserves the 

 name necessary to carry out such a style of riding can 



I 



