lOG THE NOBLE SCIENCE. 



a test of ^ood temper, as to serve for a guide to any 

 young lady in the choice of a husband, if she be not satis- 

 fied that a fox-hunter is better worth ha vino; than the 

 " nice young man " who keeps tame rabbits, shoots foxes, 

 &c., &c. But I must say, that temper and patience have 

 no sHght influence in the management of a horse ; that if 

 a man can ride well in an irritable mood, he will ride still 

 better in good humour ; and that all the most brilliant 

 amongst the hard riders of my acquaintance, are alike 

 characterized by the most estimable deportment in all re- 

 lations of life. T am aware that, in making this assertion, I 

 am summoning up a fearful array of what are termed, in 

 Paddyland, "right wicked riders," men of the dare-devil 

 school, who stick at nothing — men who would be in the 

 first flight, for a time, at least, with any pack in the 

 United Kingdom, without being conspicuous in any way 

 for amiable qualities, or possessing one redeeming virtue 

 but that of bravery. I say bravery, not courage ; for 

 there is, between these two, a wide distinction. I take 

 leave, however, to doubt much whether these men of 

 nerve are more than mere riders, without pretension to 

 the name of horsemen. They cannot make the most 

 of a good horse, or the best of a bad one. A little 

 jealousy is inseparable from the emulation which the 

 character of the sport engenders. A generous rivalry is 

 only an essence of the spirit of the chase ; but that 

 spirit is the ofls{)ring of mirth ; it is nourished by the 

 milk of human kindness, and is pregnant with all the best 

 feelings of human nature, which she annually brings forth. 



