CHAPTER X. 



ON HUNTING. 



" Tlie sailor who rides on the ocean, 



Delights when the stonny winds blow : 

 Wind and steam, what are they to horse motion ? 



Sea cheers to a land Tally-ho ? 

 The canvas, the screw, and the paddle, 



The stride of the thoroiigh-hred hack, 

 "When, fastened like glue to the saddle, 

 We gallop astern of the pack." 



Tarporley Hunt Soxg, 1855. 



Advantage of Imnting. — Libels on. — Great men who have hunted. — 

 Popular notion unlike reality. — Dick Christian and the Marquis of 

 Hastings. — Fallacy of "lifting" a horse refuted. — Hints on riding 

 at fences. — Harriers discussed. — Stag-hunting a necessity and us 3 

 where time an object. — Hints for novices. — Tally-ho I expounded. — 

 To feed a horse after a hard ride. — Expenses of horse keep. — Song 

 by Squire Warburtou, "A word ere we start." 



Every man who can ride, and, living within a couple of 

 hours' distance of a pack of hounds, can spare a day 

 now and then, should hunt. It will improve his horse- 

 manshii^, enlarge his circle of acquaintance, as Avell as 

 his tastes and sympathies, and make, as Shakspeare 

 hath it — 



" Good digestion wait on appetite, and health on both." 



Not that I mean that every horseman should attempt to 

 follow the hounds in the first flight, or even the second ; 

 because age, nerves, weight, or other good reasons may 



