THE NOBLE SCIENCE. 79 



sprinkling dotted here and there about most countries.* 

 A man must be either a fool or a brute who kills his 

 horse in the field ; I do not, of course, mean to say, that 

 horses, like all other animals, are not liable to sudden 

 dissolution, and that, from a variety of causes for which 

 the rider is not responsible, a good hunter may not fall 

 a sacrifice to his ardour ; but a man must be a fool who 

 perseveres, in ignorance, to goad a willing horse to death, 

 long after exhausted Nature has cried " hold, enough :" — 

 and, on the other hand, must be devoid of humanity, ergo 

 a brute, if he persists in making a bad fight, instead of a 

 decorous retreat, after he is sensible of any faiHng in the 

 powers of progress. 



To your Leicestershire heroes, and others of that 

 school — to your pinks of the first water — all this may 

 sound as twaddle, and may entail upon me and the 

 progeny of my pen the fate of being damned beyond re- 

 demption ; but — doucement, doiicement—rememheY none 

 of this is addressed to grandees, or to those enjoying a 

 change of horses upon every hill. These hints are 

 intended for those who, instead of having three or four 



* I had a fine mare, a valuable hunter, tired in a long run, having been brought 

 out, not in condition. She was taken to the nearest stable, and, in the course 

 of an hour or two, appeared so far recovered that she was supposed fit to return 

 home, and was travelled fifteen miles that evening to her own stable ; returning, 

 as they described her, in their ignorance, fresh as a kitten. She was stone dead 

 before morning. I have not the slightest doubt that, had she remained undis- 

 turbed for twenty-four hours when she first began to rally, she would have 

 suffered no ill effects from fatigue or over exertion. 



