1 68 RIDING FOR LADIES. 



getting a tumble, I at once surmise that she must be a very 

 mild goer indeed ; that she never rides hard except on 

 exceptional days, when a country with which she is per- 

 fectly familiar happens to be traversed, and that the click 

 of her horse's hoofs is heard far oftener upon the roads 

 than is the thunder of them on the broad fields, where bull- 

 finch and yawning chasm offer difficulties with which the 

 " cautious ones " do not care to meddle. 



There is no denying the fact that if you mean to harden 

 your heart and go straight, not stopping to take mental 

 measurements of any obstacle that you may chance to 

 encounter, falls will assuredly be your portion, and probably 

 a good many of them, too ; for you must remember that no 

 matter how perfect may be your skill in the saddle, or how 

 admirable the training of your steed, such things cannot 

 afford you complete immunity from danger, so long as the 

 hunting-field is flooded (which it unfortunately is) with 

 ignorant horsemen, mounted on all kinds of animals — 

 rough-riders, who care little about jostling and cannoning, 

 provided that they themselves succeed in getting foremost 

 places — and children, chiefly young boys, whose parents 

 indulge them with mounts (no matter of what sort, provided 

 they have four legs to carry them) during the long Christmas 

 vacation, and who, with the fearlessness of ignorance, dash 

 hither and thither, without any regard whatever for their 

 own safety, much less for that of others. 



One of the very worst falls I ever got in my life was caused 

 by a schoolboy on a pony. The little chap burst wildly 

 through a hedge close to Notley Abbey, where I happened 



