ON FALLS 257 



tain class, who are readily distinguished by their awk- 

 wardness, and even they can sometimes turn their mis- 

 adventure to account in the estimation of their lady 

 loves when they meet them 'on parade' at Cheltenham 

 or Leamington. I remember a genius of this kind 

 falling over a single rail about two feet high, and riding 

 about afterwards inquiring of every person with whom 

 he had the slightest speaking acquaintance, if they had 

 seen him ' get his fall,' anxious to impress every one 

 with the fact. Having accomplished that purpose he 

 rode off to Cheltenham with a similar intention, al- 

 though he lived five or six miles from that place. 

 Some people make themselves strangely ridiculous. 

 With men possessing any pretensions to the character 

 of horsemen falls are regarded as indicating a sports- 

 manlike determination to ride to hounds at all risks ; 

 and falls are the fortune of war. 



The general opinion is opposed to strong timber as 

 being the most prolific of danger, especially with a 

 horse that is blown. I doubt whether blind ditches are 

 not more objectionable. A horse that is accustomed to 

 carpentry knows pretty well that it will not yield and 

 will make every effort to rise, whereas more care- 

 lessness is frequently evinced at squire traps. 



Unless a man is quick in getting up after a fall, it is 

 obvious that it would be better to have gone a short 

 distance out of the line for a more practicable place. 

 When a horse gets away from his rider in a run it may 

 happen that they do not enter into partnership again 

 till the fun is over; and it is not a dignified position or 

 an enviable condition for an ardent gentleman sports- 

 man to be seen making his way across the fields in top 

 boots, entreating every person who passes him to catch 

 his horse. A friend of mine some years ago, on making 

 his debut in Warwickshire, on which occasion the 

 hounds had a verj'^ severe run, had the misfortune to 

 lose his horse very early in the day in those large fields 

 near Woolford Wood. The hounds went straight away 

 and the horse after them, and my friend, not knowing 



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