FALLING. 167 



tempt you to mount. Secondly, you must never on any 

 account be in a hurry, nor allow others to hustle you. 

 Though hounds may be in full cry within a field of you, 

 and only a single small fence dividing, you must take your 

 time, deliberately, and without flurry. Thirdly, you must 

 never under any circumstances make for the fastest ro7ite, 

 nor jump a big place to get on terms with the pack ; on the 

 contrary, you must let the hard-riding fraternity go by on 

 all occasions, and then, warned by their mishaps, calmly 

 pick your own places, and get through gaps and gates as 

 best you can. Fourthly, you must watch the very first 

 signs of tiring that are visible in your horse, and on per- 

 ceiving them give in at once, and either ride or rail him 

 quietly home. Fifthly, you must be decidedly wealthy, to 

 allow of your purchasing marvels that can never by any 

 chance contrive to put a foot astray. Sixthly, you must 

 be a first-class judge of horseflesh, to enable you to find 

 out such unheard-of acquisitions : and seventhly, you must 

 possess a calmness of temperament very rarely to be met 

 with among horsewomen — coupled with a wisdom to which 

 that of Solomon, or Minerva, was a mere bagatelle. 



I fancy, having got thus far, that I hear some lady 

 asking rather disconsolately ivliy I thus jest about serious 

 matters, and whether it is really not possible, except 

 on the conditions I have named, for an equestrian to 

 ride to hounds without receiving falls, — and I at once 

 answer that, according to my ideas of straight riding, it 

 certainly is not. Whenever I hear a lady boast that she 

 can ride two, three, or four da)'s a week without ever 



