176 RIDING RECOLLECTIONS. 



size is no more a criterion of strength than haste is 

 of speed. The bone of a thorough-bred horse is of 

 the closest and toughest fibre, his muscles are well 

 developed, and his joints elastic. Do not these advan- 

 tages infer power, no less than stamina, and in our own 

 experience have we not all reason to corroborate the 

 old-fashioned maxim, " It is action that carries 

 weight " ? Nimrod, who understood the subject 

 thoroughly, observes with great truth, that " * Wind ' 

 is strength ; when a horse is blown a mountain or 

 a mole-hill are much the same to him," and no sports- 

 man who has ever scaled a Highland hill to circumvent 

 a red-deer, or walk up to " a point," will dispute the 

 argument. What a game animal it is, that without 

 touch of spur, at the mere pleasure and caprice of a 

 rider, struggles gallantly on till it drops ! 



There used to be a saying in the Prize Ring, that 

 "Seven pounds will lick the best man in England." 

 This is but a technical mode of stating that, costeris 

 paribus, weight means strength. Thirty years ago, it 

 was a common practice at Melton to weigh hunters 

 after they were put in condition, and sportsmen often 

 wondered to find how the eye had deceived them, in 

 the comparative tonnage, so to speak, and consequently, 

 the horse-power of these different conveyances ; the 



