CHAPTER X. 



THOROUGH-BRED HORSES. 



I HAVE heard it affirmed, though I know not on what 

 authority, that if we are to believe the hunting records 

 of the last hundred years, in all runs so severe and 

 protracted as to admit of only one man getting to the 

 finish, this exceptional person was in every instance, 

 riding an old horse, a thorough-bred horse, and a horse 

 under fifteen-two! 



Perhaps on consideration, this is a less remarkable 

 statement than it appears. That the survivor was an 

 old horse, means that he had many years of corn and 

 condition to pull him through ; that he was a little 

 horse, infers he carried a light weight, but that he 

 was a thorough-bred horse seems to me a reasonable 

 explanation of the whole. 



" The thorough-bred ones never stop," is a common 



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