172 IRiMuG IRecollections an^ Uxxvt Stories 



give up riding ?" In these days, when large salaries, 

 big retainers, and handsome presents are the fashion, 

 it seems a pity that, being blessed with good health 

 and a hard constitution, I should have been obliged 

 to abandon a profession I was passionately fond of. 

 At the time I gave up the weights had not been 

 raised, consequently I had the greatest difficulty to 

 reduce myself to 8 st. 7 lb., and it was very hard work 

 indeed for me to keep down to 8 st. 10 lb. all the year 

 round. I could get down to my weight in the spring 

 easily in a fortnight, and generally started at Lin- 

 coln ; but to manage to remain so all the year was a 

 fearful trial, and at the finish my doctor told me I must 

 give it up or seriously injure my health, if the result 

 was not worse. In reality, I was trying to waste 

 muscle instead of flesh, and every week it got harder 

 and more difficult to get off Many a time have I 

 gone out from Newmarket in the autumn, walked nine 

 or ten miles with a lot of sweaters on, and worked 

 as hard as possible, and arrived home imagining 

 that I was certainly two or three pounds lighter. 

 When put in the scales I found I was not more, and 

 sometimes less, than one pound lighter, not having 

 had a mouthful of anything to eat. It is the last 

 pound or two that really takes the getting off. No 

 one knows, who has not been through it, the hard 



