388 RIDING TO HOUNDS 



horseman, Sir Henry Peyton. We were running a fox very hard 

 with Sir Thomas Mostyn's homids, and we had a deep fallow field to 

 encounter. Sir Henry espied a dry ditch running parallel with it ; 

 and not regarding a few thorns and brambles, he rode up it, and 

 when he came to the top of the field, his horse had an evident 

 advantage over the rest. This might be called a second " trick." 



The gi-eatest trial at nerve, next to being shot at, is putting a 

 horse that is blown at stiff and high timber. His rider is not only 

 likely to get a fall, but a fall of the worst description, as it is ten to 

 one but the horse not only tumbles upon him, from not having the 

 power to rise (perhaps half the height of the fence), but that he lies 

 upon him when he is down. I remember once asking a huntsman 

 how his horse carried him — suspecting him to l)e one of the wrong 

 sort — when he answered, that he was a dunghill brute, and not 

 content with tumbling him down, " but," added he, " he lies on me 

 for half an hour when he is down." 



A little management, however, is useful in all these matters. The 

 mere act of turning a hunter around, if he appears much distressed 

 for wind, before we put him at a fence, will relieve him greatly, and 

 generally enable him to clear it, if he is of the right sort to come 

 again. 



Large fences take a great deal out of a hunter, and consequently 

 tend to stop him; but, "it is the pace that kills." A celebrated 

 Meltonian wrote to his father a few days since, and this was part of 

 his epistle : — " We had a quick thing last week — eiglit miles, point 

 blank, in tiventy-six onimites ! If I had not had a second horse 

 posted (luckily) half way, I could not have seen it." So much for 

 pace ! Concluding that the run was not quite straight, it was at the 

 rate of twenty miles in the hour ! This reminds me of an amusing 

 anecdote. 



A great man in Leicestershire sold a horse to a little man, assuring 

 him that he was a very good hunter. The little man, however, soon 

 found out that he was a very bad hunter, and remonstrated with the 

 great man on the subject. " You assured me," said he, " this was as 

 good a horse as you ever possessed in yovr life." — "Did I?" replied 

 the great man: "I think. Sir, you must be mistaken." On his 

 being reassured that those were his precise words, he exclaimed, 



