156 RIDING RECOLLECTIONS. 



an unfurrowed surface in his own green island, being 

 moreover usually much wanting in condition, feels 

 the added labour, and difference of action required, 

 severely enough. It is proverbial that a horse equal 

 to fourteen stone in Ireland is only up to thirteen in 

 Leicestershire, and English purchasers must calculate 

 accordingly. 



But if some prize-taker at the Dublin Horse Show, 

 or other ornament of that land which her natives call 

 the " first flower of the earth and first gem of the sea," 

 should disappoint you a little when you ride him in 

 November from Ranksborough, the Coplow, Crick, 

 Melton-Spinney, Christmas-Gorse, Great- Wood, or any 

 other favourite covert in one of our many good hunt- 

 ing countries, do not therefore despond. If he fail 

 in deep ground, or labour on ridge and furrow, re- 

 member he possesses this inestimable merit that he 

 can go the shortest way ! Because the fence in front 

 is large, black, and forbidding, you need not therefore 

 send him at it a turn faster than usual ; he is accustomed 

 to spring from his back, and cover large places out 

 of a trot. If you ride your own line to hounds, it 

 is no slight advantage thus to have the power of 

 negotiating awkward corners, without being "com- 

 mitted to them " fifty yards off, unable to pull up 



