54 THE HOESE AND HIS RIDER. 



WATER JUMPING. 



Throughout England, and especially in Leicestershire 

 and Northamptonshire, there are two descriptions of 

 brooks. In one the water is about a foot or two below 

 the level of the green fields through which it peacefully 

 meanders. In the other, though deep enough to drown 

 a man, it flows and occasionally rushes ten or twelve 

 feet below the surface, between two loamy banks as per- 

 pendicular as the wall of a house. If a red, brown, or 

 black coat, attended by a pair of leather, kersey, or cor- 

 duroy breeches, ending in boots, plunge together into 

 the first, they simply go in dry and come out wet. 

 But, if a horse fails to clear the chasm, he is liable not 

 only to fall backwards upon these articles of apparel, but 

 afterwards, quite unintentionally, to strike their owner 

 during the awkward struggles of both animals to swim. 



Now, although to some of our readers it may possi- 

 bly appear that the act of riding over " a bit of water " 

 of the latter description has no legal claim to be in- 

 cluded in the schedule headed " the pleasures and 

 amusements of man," yet it may most truly be said that 

 in a good run, or even in a bad one, there exists nothing 

 that gives an ordinary rider more intense pleasure than 

 the sight, say a quarter of a mile before him, of those 

 well-known willows that indicate to him the line of 

 beauty of the brook he is shortly to have the enjoy- 



