VALOUR. 121 



to do ? If we follow a leader, and he drops short, we are 

 irretrievably defeated, if we make our own selection, the 

 gulf may be as wide as the Thames. " Send him at it ! " 

 says valour, " and take your chance ! " Perhaps it is the 

 best plan after all. There is something in luck, a good 

 deal in the reach of a horse's stride at a gallop, and if 

 we do get over, we rather flatter ourselves for the next 

 mile or two that we have " done the trick ! " 



To enter on the subject of " hard riding," as it is 

 called, without honourable mention of the habit and 

 the side-saddle, would in these days betray both want 

 of observation and politeness ; but ladies, though they 

 seem to court danger no less freely than admiration, 

 possess, I think, as a general rule, more pluck than nerve. 

 I can recall an instance very lately, however, in which I 

 saw displayed by one of the gentlest of her sex, an 

 amount of courage, coolness, and self-possession, that 

 would have done credit to a hero. This lady, who had 

 not quite succeeded in clearing a high post-and-rail with 

 a boggy ditch on the landing side, was down and under 

 her horse. The animal's whole weight rested on her 

 legs, so as to keep her in such a position, that her head 

 lay between its fore and hind feet, where the least 

 attempt at a struggle, hemmed in by those four shining 

 shoes, must have dashed her brains out. She seemed 



