58 THE HOKSE AND HIS RIDER. 



feet, leaving behind a track like tliat of a railway, they 

 slide along the wet, rich, loamy turf, until horse, and 

 gallant, glorious Charlie* dive together, head-foremost, 

 into the brook ! In a few minutes, men in coats of all 

 colours, trotting up one after another, walk their horses 

 cautiously to the edge of the chasm, crane over as if to 

 gaze at the frightened frogs that inhabit it, and after thus 

 losing more or less of time they can never live to recover, 

 canter or gallop in different directions in quest either 

 of a bridge or a ford. 



Now, while this serio-comic picture is before the eyes 

 of our readers, that very small portion of them who have 

 never been actors in such a scene will no doubt be not 

 a little astonished to learn that of all fences on the surface 

 of the globe there is no one that is so easy for a horse to 

 jump as water. 



If the footmarks of a good horse that has galloped over 

 turf be measured, it will be found that in every stride 

 his four feet have covered a space of twenty-two feet. 

 If, in cool blood, he be very gently cantered at a common 

 sheep-hurdle, without any ditch on one side of it or the 

 other, it will be found that he has cleared, or rather has 

 not been able to help clearing, from ten to twelve feet. 

 In Egypt, an antelope chased by hounds on coming sud- 

 denly to a little crack or crevice in the ground caused 



* The Honourable C. C, 



