3'2 FACT AGAINST FICTION. 



but it closed with its meslies so well up to the 

 lips that the pony could not loll out his tonf^^uc, 

 or 2)rcvent its being subject to the action of the 

 bit. The '' tongue was always within the teeth," 

 — I wish some people wore the same preventioiij — 

 and, therefore, the mouth was kept alive and 

 never permitted to get dry ; it could not deaden ; 

 and the pony, so netted, could not pull in any 

 unpleasant degree whatever. 



I remember, when sporting writers were fewer, a 

 man, who adopted the name of ^'Nimrod," assumed 

 an authority to which he was in no way entitled, 

 and in his lucubrations ventured to dictate to men 

 how they Avere always to put their horse at the 

 different kinds of fences. One was to be guided 

 this way, another that; l)ut at a brook the double 

 thong was to be applied at every stroke of the 

 horse's gallop down the shoulder. 



I have seen this writer out with my staghounds, 

 and, as we say, ^' he never went a yard." 



Now the worst thing that a man in hunting can 

 possibly do is, to take his horse's attention from the 

 work that horse has immediately before him. A horse 

 needs to have his mind at ease and his senses about 

 him just as much as a sporting dog of any kind; and 



