250 RIDING RECOLLECTIONS. 



his prostrate body with all the weight of its own. Such 

 accidents must sometimes happen, of course, but they are 

 not necessarily of every-day occurrence. By riding with 

 moderate speed at his fences, and preserving, on all 

 occasions, coolness, good-humour, and confidence in his 

 partner, a sportsman, even when past his prime, may 

 cross the severest parts of the Harborough country 

 itself with an infinitesimal amount of danger to life and 

 limb. Kindness, coercion, hand, seat, valour, and dis- 

 cretion should be combined in due proportion, and the 

 mixture, as far as the hunting-field is concerned, will 

 come out a real elixir vita such as the pale Rosicrucian 

 poring over crucible and alembic sought to compound 

 in vain. 



I cannot forbear quoting once more from the gallant 

 soul-stirring lines of Mr. Bromley Davenport, himself an 

 enthusiast who, to this day, never seems to remember he 

 has a neck to break ! 



( What is time ? the effusion of life zoophytic, 



In dreary pursuit of position or gain. 

 What is life ? the absorption of vapours mephitic, 



The bursting of sunlight on senses and brain. 

 Such a life has been mine, though so speedily over, 



Condensing the joys of a century's course, 

 From the find, till they ate him near Woodwell-Head Covert, 



In thirty bright minutes from Banksborough Gorse ! " 



