126 THE HOESB AND HIS EIDER. 



have to sustain this conflict between the moveable and 

 immoveable parts of one frame are often so severely 

 strained, that they require, for many months, to be 

 bandaged by a leathern strap. 



The plain flap is considerably lighter than the stuffed 

 one. It is a sovereign cheaper; in case it gets into a 

 brook it dries easier ; and after all, it is infinitely more 

 agreeable to ride on. For all these good reasons, in Leices- 

 tershire, Northamptonshire, and Lincolnshire, which may 

 be termed the region in England of large fences, it 

 has been generally adopted. However, as Peter in his 

 ' Letters to his Kinsfolk ' truly observed that although the 

 mail ran from London to Edinburgh in forty-eight hours, 

 it required always six months for fashions in dress to 

 travel from the former metropolis to the latter, so 

 throughout almost all the other counties hunting men 

 continue to sit behind that costly, ugly, thigh-straining 

 sausage stuffing which the riders to the Pytchley, Quorn, 

 and Cottesmore hounds have so properly discarded. 



BKIDLES. 



Arrian states that the Persians, in battle, had no 

 bridles, but governed and guided their horses by nose 

 bands, covering sharp pieces of iron, brass, or ivory. 



