lUDTNG TO HOUNDS 391 



iu tliis fatal instanco ; and to it, perhaps, may the melancholy 

 catastrophe be attributed. " His horse," says the writer of the 

 paragraph in the Hull Advertiser, " a spirited and powerful animal, 

 swam with him into the middle of the i-iver, when fjetting hni)atient, 

 he reared, and threiv his rider backicard/' Now there is every reason 

 to believe, that had Mr. Theakston left the horse to himself, holding 

 on by the mane, and only directing his course when necessary with 

 tlie snaffle rein, he would have borne liim in safety across the 

 stream . 



I speak from practical observation on this subject. When at a 

 watering-place in Wales, I was in the habit of having my horse 

 swum in the sea by a man who was in the constant practice of 

 swimming them for a very trifling consideration. He was himself a 

 very expert swimmer, and regularly attended the bathing machines. 

 From this man I learnt that there were only three things to be 

 oliserved in swimming a horse — first, to give him free use of his 

 head ; secondly, to hold on by the mane ; and, lastly, taking the feet 

 out of the stirrups, to lean the body obliquely forward as much as 

 possible, which will cause the water to get under it and float it, and 

 thereby diminish the weight of it on the horse. It was the opinion 

 of this person, that a horse would swim nearly as far with a man on 

 bis back, who was thus expert at the management of him, as he 

 would without him. 



There is a small arm of the sea, about a mile wide at high water, 

 which divides the northern and the southein pi'incipalities of Wales, 

 and over which is a horse ferry. A Mr. Evans, a gentleman of some 

 property in that neighbourhood, was crossing it a few years ago as 

 the tide was running out with great rapidity, when his horse leaped 

 ovoi'board, and was cai'ried out to sea, over the bar. Mr. E. never 

 expected to see him again ; but he recovered the shore between that 

 place and the village of Towyn in Merionethshire, after swimming 

 more than two miles. Another gentleman swam a small Welsh 

 galloway across this ferry with perfect safety ; and happening to bo 

 in that country at the time, I saw him in half an hour after he had 

 done it. So much for the power of horses in water ! 



When I was about eighteen years of age, I had a narrow escape 

 from being drowned with Mr. Leech's hounds. The hounds crossed 



