ANNALS OF HORSEMANSHIP. II 



preferve my fenfe fufficiently to be able to 

 afcertain the curve fo generated by my body 

 to defcribe it on paper, and demonftrate Its 

 peculiar properties : and am not without 

 hope, if I can meet with horfes not too 

 fure-footed, by frequent experiments, to de- 

 termine what kind of parabola it is fafefl to 

 defcribe ; which problem will, I apprehend, 

 be found very ferviceable in practice, at the 

 City Hunt in Eafter week, and during the cele- 

 bration of Epfom races. 



Not long ago, by a particular convulfion 

 of the animal from which I was fo fortu- 

 nate as to fall, I was very irregularly thrown 

 to the earth, but had the fatisfadlion after- 

 wards to difcover that the curve defcribed in 

 my fall was a fegment of a very eccentric 

 ellipfe, of which the faddle was one focus ; 

 and that it was nearly, if not exadlly, the 

 fame with the path of the comet now ex- 

 pedied to return. And once, by a fuccuflation, 

 ftiii more anomalous, I was happy enough to 

 defcribe a new curve, which I found to pof- 

 fefs fome very amazing properties -, and I 

 C 2 hope 



