C03IE TO GEIEF 



THERE is no mistake about it, the artist here presents ns with a decided case of grief, 

 and seldom have we seen a place likelier to produce siich a calamity than the one selected. 

 In fact, it is such a rasper as seldom ornaments or disfigures (call it which you like) 

 a line, and has a decided Gahvay look about it, a place where they do, or at any rate did 

 like to see theii- friends and horses negotiate obstacles that were worth doing. Our 

 neighbours on the Continent also go in more for this style of thing than ourselves, 

 biit then it must be remembered that except in a few, a very few instances, they do 

 not ride themselves ; and as to killing an Englishman, whj- they are used to it, or at 

 least to falling about, and rather like it than otherwise, so it's no matter. There is 

 always an inclination to see others encounter danger with a sort of inward satisfaction ; 

 and the Cockney who, when he had seen a man or two killed at the same fence in a 

 steeplechase, and others borne away bleeding and with broken limbs, was heard to thank 

 Providence for having placed him where so much fun occurred, was not pei'hajDS such 

 an exceptional individual as we should like to believe. Thi'ee do'wn out of four is not bad 

 work, and the present scene would have been A-ery much to his taste. It is a question 

 whether he would have derived so much gratification fi-om the gallant way in which the 

 gray is doing his work, as from seeing his less fortunate companions grassed, and really 

 the horse in the left-hand corner appears to have chance enough of committing homicide 

 to satisiH- the cra-s-ings of the most sanguinary. Fortimately, however, though we do 

 read of horses with broken backs, and men being killed, fatal accidents are not nearly so 

 numerous as might be anticipated, and a man may encounter a great amount of gi'ief 

 without being much the worse for it, if, like Assheton Smith, he only knows how to fall. 

 Capt. Shakespeare says : — " After upwards of twenty-seven years of service ; after having, 

 on thi'oe separate occasions, had bones broken in hunting, twice from horses falling and 

 rolKng over ; having been wounded by a wild boar ; wounded by a panther ; and agam 

 woimded in action, the author of these pages is still in good health, and capable of 

 riding a himdred miles in the day." From tliis it will be seen that a man may stand a 

 deal of knocking about without being much the worse, and indeed no better proof of 

 this could be brought forward than the gi'cen old age of the before-mentioned Mr. Smith 

 who rode well to hounds after he was eighty years of age, and had fallen into every 

 field in Leicestershire. Fatal accidents, for the most part, do not happen at the raspers, 

 biit generally at some little trumpery obstacle that a donkey could surmount. Thus, 

 not more than twelve months ago we saw a poor fellow roll with his horse over a 

 common sheep hurdle, who was carried senseless away, only to live for a few 

 hours. Thank goodness, these occmTences arc rare, and would be rarer still but for the 

 untrained, bad-tempered brutes that many men think good enough to risk the lives of 

 their fellow-creatm-es on in a steeplechase ; horses which they dare not mount 

 themselves for the world, and yet will put iinder another to run all the risks of a race 

 across country. These are the animals that come to giief and kill people, while horses 

 thoroughlj' up to their business will run chase after chase without making a mistake, 

 and hardly get a fall in a season. To see this we need only point to the stables of 

 Lords Poulett and Coventiy, or observe how Mr. Yates's nags run on \seek after week and 

 keep their legs. Another reason for this is their being turned out always in condition 



