HUNTING, AND lilDlNG TO iiOtJNDS. 33 



SO liad tlic sapient pig, or lie would have Ijeen 

 alpliabetically puzzled. If, while the pig was look- 

 ing for the letter, you had caned him, he would, 

 in all probability, have been bored or angered into 

 mistake ; and in a similar way, if }^oli flourish your 

 whip or cram in the sj)urs when the poor dear steed 

 is timing his stride so as not to take off too soon, 

 and looking whereabouts to land his feet on the off- 

 side of the fence in his way, why ten to one but 

 he takes off, 2)erhaps, a full length too soon, and 

 so diminishes his power of clearing space, or you 

 drive him frightened not to take off at all, but to 

 over-stride himself, and to land you in the next 

 field on your head, with his weight and your saddle 

 on your own back instead of on his own. 



In going across country, never frighten your 

 horse, — let him keep his wits about liim as much as 

 you keep yours. A sensible hunter, not ^'bullied" 

 out of his wits by a nervous tyrant on his back, will 

 depend upon his rider's hand and voice to assist 

 him under difficulties, or when, in taking a fence, he 

 comes on some blind ^' Squire Trap," that requires 

 human insight as well as mere surface view to 

 avoid. My horse Brutus was one of these even- 

 tempered, sagacious hunters ; and it has occasionally 



VOL. I. D 



