Jl8 RIDING RECOLLECTIONS. 



advanced middle-age governed the steady manoeuvres 

 of Bulganak, and led the death-ride at 'Balaclava, burned 

 bright and fierce to the end. The graceful seat might 

 be less firm, the tall soldier-like figure less upright, but 

 Mars, one of his last and best hunters, was urged to 

 charge wood and water by the same bold heart at 

 seventy, that tumbled Langar into the Uppingham road 

 over the highest gate in Leicestershire at twenty-six. 

 The foundation of Lord Cardigan's whole character was 

 valour. He loved it, he prized it, he admired it in 

 others, he was conscious and proud of it in himself. 



So jealous was he of this chivalrous quality, that even 

 in such a matter of mere amusement as riding across a 

 country, he seemed to attach some vague sense of .dis- 

 grace to the avoidance of a leap, however dangerous, if 

 hounds were running at the time, and was notorious for 

 the recklessness with which he would plunge into the 

 deepest rivers though he could not swim a stroke ! 



This I think is to court real danger for no sufficient 

 object. 



Lord Wolverton, than whom no man has ridden 

 straighter and more enthusiastically to hounds, ever 

 since he left Oxford, once crossed the Thames in this 

 most perilous fashion, for he, too, has never learnt to 

 swim, during a run with " the Queen's." " But," said I, 



