104 HINTS ON HORSEMANSHIP. 



can justify the deed. If the ground be hard and even, a 

 collected canter may be allowed, but if hard and uneven, a 

 moderate trot at most. One hour s gallop on such ground 

 would do the soundest horse irremediable mischief. Those 

 who boast of having gone such a distance, in such a time, on 

 the ground supposed, show ignorance or inhumanity. Such 

 feats require cruelty only, not courage. Nay they are per- 

 formed most commonly by the very persons who are too 

 cowardly or too unskilful to dare to trust their horse with his 

 foot on the elastic turf, or to stand with him the chances 

 of the hunting field : and such is the inconsistency of 

 human nature, that they are performed by persons who 

 would shudder at the sight of the bleeding flank of the race- 

 horse ! or who would lay down with disgust and some expres- 

 sion of maudlin, morbid humanity, the truly interesting 

 Narrative of that most intrepid and enduring of all gallopers, 

 Sir Francis Head. But compare the cases. In the case of 

 the race-horse, he has his skin wounded to urge him to a 



