56 THE HORSE AND HIS RIDER. 



be forbidden to him to cross. For this reason, before a 

 sportsman can ride with confidence at a brook, he requires 

 not only a stout horse, but to know what sort of a 

 heart lived beneath the waistcoat of the man by whom 

 the animal was last hunted, for however badly bred he 

 may be, he may have been made bold at water ; while, 

 on the other hand, however high-bred and handsome he 

 may appear, however splendidly and cleverly he may 

 throughout the run have been crossing single and double 

 fences of every variety, yet, by an irresolute pair of hands, 

 he may have been spoiled at water. Accordingly, when 

 a gallant fox, followed after a short interval by a pack 

 of hounds and a large scattered body of men and horses, 

 passing like the shadows of summer clouds over the beau- 

 tiful green sward of Northamptonshire, glide rapidly 

 towards a brook, there occasionally appears among several 

 of them a sudden transmigration of hearts and bodies, 

 which to a foreigner, who did not understand the reason, 

 would appear to be utterly inexplicable. 



Although ten or twelve horses, gallantly taking it in 

 their stride, have proved the jump to be an easy one, two 

 or three of the foremost riders are seen to pull up, appa- 

 rently afraid. In like manner, as horses and horsemen 

 who had been riding boldly approach, it becomes evident 

 to the meanest capacity, that the peg that holds in their 

 steam is getting sometimes in the biped, sometimes in 

 the quadruped, and sometimes in both looser and looser 



