FALLING. 169 



to be waiting quietly, in hopes that the fox might break 

 that way — and, cannoning right against me, caught my horse 

 on the quarters, and turned him a complete somersault, 

 burying me beneath his weight. Fortunately there were 

 not many out, for it was a Chilton day, and the weather 

 was very boisterous ; had things been otherwise I could not 

 have escaped being ridden over, for the game broke at the 

 precise instant of my fall, and the field, such as it was, 

 came streaming right over the fatal fence. On another 

 occasion, when down at the bottom of a deep drain, a 

 horsebreaker on a colossal mount tumbled crash on top 

 of me, and neither of us looked handsome when dragged 

 out — nor for a good many days after. 



It is, therefore, manifest that however valuable skill and 

 good horseflesh may undoubtedly be, we are largely depen- 

 dent upon others for our safety, or its reverse, when we go 

 to hunt, and as Carlyle's theory of " mostly fools " is never 

 in any place so clearly set forth as in the hunting-field, it 

 will be well not to go thither with an over-confident feeling 

 respecting our own powers, but rather to adopt the pithy 

 prayer of the old Hobb's Hill huntsman, " From all bad 

 riders and wild horses, good Lord deliver us ! " 



I would have you bear in mind that it will be a grand 

 help to you upon all occasions to keep cool, to avoid flurry 

 and fuss, and above all things to steer clear of " funk," which 

 is as bad as panic, or a trifle worse. It is the least flurried 

 riders who always come ofT the best, in two senses of the 

 word, — therefore, while falls are not by any means to be 

 made light of, they should be taken as coolly as possible, nor 



