4o8 



The Book of the Horse. 



"creeping" counties, with those who can afford the expense. For those who hunt every day in 

 a galloping county it is an economy, as a horse relieved of a heavy rider's weight at the 

 end of the first sharp run will be ready to come out again sooner than if com-:clled to toil on 

 all day. 



The Due dc St. Simon relates in his " Memoirs " that his father obtained the favour of 

 Louis by a method of changing horses in hunting without dismounting which might be followed 

 in fo.x-hunting. St. Simon rode up and along the off side of the king's horse, with the second 



^1^^^^^^^ 



GOOD FOR ANy HOUNDS. 



horse's head to the head of the tired horse. The king having passed his left leg over his 

 own horse's neck, and, sitting sideways, was able to mount the second horse without a minute's 

 pause. 



The paradise of the fox-hunter is certainly comprised in the circle on which 

 fashion, not without reason, has set its seal, of which Melton and Market Harborough are 

 supposed to be the head-quarters, although railways have made Oakham, Leamington, 

 Rugby, and Northampton, equally accessible. As regards sport, Yorkshire has some dozen 

 packs of hounds, supported by a numerous local aristocracy. Holderness, its best pasture 

 district, is not second to Leicestershire. Lincolnshire wolds and heath have long been 

 famous as the training-ground of the best class of hunters. Nottinghamshire, with the 

 enormous woodlands of the "dukcrics," open and intersected with green rides circling round 

 Sherborne Forest, and with a quantity of light land not good for scent, stands high in the 



