236 THE HORSE. 



I once had a hunter of rare qualifications, enthusiasti- 

 cally attached to the sport, safe, knowing at all points 

 of the business, a rare flying fencer, equal to the 

 longest day, but though nearly thorough bred, such 

 a rough and jarring galloper as to neutralize all others, 

 though the highest qualities. The fondness and eager- 

 ness for the sport of hunting, equalling that of the 

 hounds themselves, evinced by some horses, is a 

 remarkable and long remarked trait in the character 

 of the horse; and it partakes of the nature of the 

 same passion in man, not in that, evidently of the 

 hounds. I may have related the following instance 

 elsewhere, but if so, I now claim the privilege of aged 

 garrulity. When I was about nine years of age, a 

 grandaughter of old Sampson, and of the highest re- 

 pute in her county as a hunter, the property of a near 

 relative of mine, being in her paddock, heard the cry 

 of the hounds ; in a moment she pricked up her ears, 

 snorted, and galloping towards the sound, took a jump 

 of most extraordinary altitude and danger, there being 

 a well with railing on the other side, and joined the 

 hunt. The gentlemen knowing the mare, were so 

 pleased and gratified with their new associate, that 

 no attempt was made to stop or catch her, and she 

 ran with them a considerable number of miles, till 

 they killed ; when one of the grooms secured her and 

 took her home. A still more extraordinary account 

 appeared in the newspapers a few months since. 

 Three of the horses of the Brighton coach chanced 

 to have finished their stage, and to have been stand- 

 ing unharnessed at the instant Lord Derby's stag- 

 hounds passed in full cry ; the horses started off and 

 joined the hunt con amore, and had the gratification 



