80 THE NOBLE SCIENCE. 



horses out on one day, have, perhaps, not that number in 

 their stable; who will, upon one horse, lead the van 

 through the whole of a day, and bring him out, to 

 take the same place in another, within a week : — for those 

 younger brothers and other good fellows who follow the 

 chase for the pure love of the thing ; who would rather 

 ride their hunters on to covert themselves in the morn- 

 ing, than miss the day, and who are, generally speaking, 

 far better sportsmen, and have ten times more fun for 

 their money than the more favourite sons of fortune. 

 By all these, no wrinkle, tending to the better manage- 

 ment of their horses, will be despised. I shall proceed, 

 therefore, to offer them another in the shape of shoeing. 



" The Leicestershire creed this old practice outworms, 

 Lost shoes and dead beat are synonymous terms." 



In the poem of Billesdon Coplow, written by a Divine * 

 of no little celebrity in " the days of old Meynell," there 

 are many lines which have become immortal, but none 

 have found such general acceptation as the above two, 

 which have become proverbial as touching the suspicion 



* If the following anecdote, relative to this reverend sportsman, has before 

 appeared in print, it is good enough, as a true story, to bear repetition. Some 

 of his brethren of the cloth were shewing him up, on account of his sporting 

 propensities, to his Diocesan, who was inclined to wink at a few failings Avhich 

 "leaned to virtue's side," and was satisfied with the merits of his otherwise 

 irreproachable character. Amongst other enormities, they represented that 



Mr. was actually going to ride a match at the county races. " Is he, 



indeed," said the amiable and good-humoured old Bishop — " is he, indeed; then 

 I will bet half-a-crown he wins." 



