USE AND ABUSE OF SPURS. 69 



starting before the signal is given. As soon as they 

 are " off," it becomes all that the best riders in the 

 world can do merely to guide them : to stop them would 

 be impossible. Occasionally their very limbs "break 

 down " in their endeavours to win ; and yet, while 

 they are exerting their utmost powers and strength, 

 to the shame of their owners and to the disgrace of 

 the nation, the riders are allowed, as a sort of show 

 off, to end the contest by whipping and spurring, which, 

 nine times out of ten, has the effect of making the noblest 

 quadruped in creation do what is technically called " SHUT 

 UP," which means that the ungenerous and ungrateful 

 punishment and degradation that have been unjustly 

 inflicted upon him have cowed his gallant spirit, and 

 have broken an honest heart ! 



But the ignorance as well as the brutality of unne- 

 cessarily spurring a hunter is even worse than that just 

 portrayed. When a young horse that has never seen a 

 hound, is ridden up, for the first time in his life, not to 

 a meet, at which the whole pack are to be seen, but 

 merely to the side of a covert, which, hidden from view, 

 they are drawing, it might reasonably be conceived that 

 under such circumstances he could not have an idea of 

 their past, present, or future proceedings we mean, 

 where they had come from, what they were doing, or 

 what they were going to do. However, no sooner does 



