SAFE BIND SAFE FIND. 69 



taking a leap of fourteen or fifteen feet, and that 

 perhaps a drop one, with a man on him, he does not 

 require support, I cannot conceive any occasion on 

 which he would. 



It is rather singular that I should have left off 

 writing at the word " would" on the Saturday even- 

 ing, when on the next morning the Sunday Times 

 gave me a truly lamentable proof that in this opinion 

 of mine I am correct, by stating the accident to poor 

 Smith, Lord Yarborough's huntsman, arising from 

 the very habit I have been deprecating, namely, 

 riding at fences with a loose rein, and suffering a 

 horse to go carelessly or lazily at them. There is 

 another great reason for having your seat and hands 

 firm on your horse landing; he not only requires 

 holding as a support, but the moment he has landed 

 he wants a twist up to set him going again, otherwise 

 he gets into the habit of losing time at every fence ; 

 and this habit, if fences come thick, tells greatly in a 

 fast thing. Some horses lose no time at all at their 

 fences ; others lose a great deal : their getting the 

 latter habit unquestionably in most cases has arisen 

 from the fault of their riders. 



In speaking and approving of the description of 

 horse I have pointed out, I do not mean to say they 

 are perhaps the pleasantest hunters, nor, if I hunted 

 with harriers, or fox-hounds went the pace I con- 

 clude they formerly did, would I select such ; but 

 hunting has been, since I first rode to hounds ; next 

 kin to racing over a country ; consequently I always 

 for hunters selected what might be called race-horses 

 that could jump ; for where foxes are forced to fly, 

 hounds bred to fly, and men disposed to fly, horses 

 must fly too ; and, in fact, the nearer a horse as a 



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