236 RIDING RECOLLECTIONS. 



gallantly enough, even the unaccustomed rail on the far 

 side of an " oxer," elicits but a startling exertion, and a 

 loud rattle of horn and iron against wood, but ere long 

 the slope rises against him, the ridge-and-furrow checks 

 his stride, a field, dotted with ant-hills as large as 

 church-hassocks and not unlike them in shape, to catch 

 his toes and impede his action, changes his smooth easy 

 swing to a laborious flounder, and presently at a thick 

 bullfinch on the crest of a grassy ridge, out of ground 

 that takes him in nearly to his hocks, comes the crisis. 

 Too good a hunter to turn over, he gets his shoulders 

 out and lets his rider see the fall before it is administered, 

 but down he goes notwithstanding, very effectually, to 

 rise again after a struggle, his eye wild, nostril distended, 

 and flanks heaving, thoroughly pumped out ! 



He is a good horse, but you have brought him into 

 the wrong countiy, and this is the result. 



It would be a hopeless task to extract from young 

 Rapid's laconic phrases, and general indifference, any 

 particulars regarding the burst in which, to give him 

 his due, he has gone brilliantly, or the merits of the 

 horse that carried him in the first flight without a 

 mistake. He wastes his time, his money, his talents, 

 but not his words. For him and his companions, ques- 

 tion and answer are cut short somewhat in this wise : 



