120 RIDING RECOLLECTIONS. 



to Sir Francis Head, is about a hap'orth, it might 

 possibly be valued at a penny, and nobody wants to 

 discover, in his own person, the exact amount. There- 

 fore are the chivalry of the Midland Counties to be seen 

 on occasion panicstricken at the downfall or disappear- 

 ance of a leader. And a dozen feet of dirty water 

 will wholly scatter a field of horsemen who would con- 

 front an enemy's fire without the quiver of an eye-lash. 

 Except timber, of which the risk is obvious, at a glance, 

 nothing frightens the half-hard, so much as a brook. It 

 is difficult, you see, to please them, the uncertainty of 

 the limpid impediment being little less forbidding than 

 the certainty of the stiff ! 



But it does require dash and coolness, pluck and nerve, 

 a certain spice of something that may fairly be called 

 valour, to charge cheerfully at a brook when we have no 

 means of ascertaining its width, its depth, or the sound- 

 ness of its banks. Horses too are apt to share the mis- 

 givings of their riders, and water-jumping, like a loan to 

 a poor relation, if not done freely, had better not be 

 done at all. 



The fox, and consequently the hounds, as we know, 

 will usually cross at the narrowest place, but even if we 

 can mark the exact spot, fences, or the nature of the 

 ground may prevent our getting there. What are we 



