258 THE HORSE. 



justice, for which, insanity and the fanaticism of the 

 field alone, can be urged as the apology. I congra- 

 tulate myself, that I can never again witness, for I 

 have witnessed, the dying groans and sobs, and sight- 

 less eyes, and ears bedewed with the sweat of death, 

 and blood issuing from the nose and mouth of the 

 fallen and heart-broken hunter ! What a spectacle to 

 be coupled with ideas of sport, exultation, and enjoy- 

 ment ! So far as my observation has reached, these 

 distressing and fatal accidents have in general, mighty 

 little to do with condition ; for whatever may be the 

 nag's condition, and whether he may have been sum- 

 mer stabled or grazed, his powers cannot be urged 

 with impunity, beyond the boundaries of nature ; and 

 the keen sportsman would do well to consider, that 

 with his horse's ability or inability, his sport, his 

 heart's delight, must flourish, or fade and be utterly 

 extinguished. It is a beautiful and saving reflection 

 for a Nimrod, or for any man in whatever way he may 

 be engaged — nullum numen abest, si sit prudentia. 



By general suffrage, Melton Mowbray is, and 

 has long been the head quarters, the Newmarket of 

 foxhunting. There, are to be found the highest bred 

 and highest reputed hunters, with the most crack 

 riders to hounds, and every kind of practice and dis- 

 cipline relative to the stable or the field, at the sum- 

 mit of that perfection which the sport has hitherto 

 attained. As a signal specimen of the powers and 

 spring of the horse, and worthy of record, Lord 

 Alvanley's hunter Chesterfield, about the beginning 

 of the present year, at Melton, covered in a single 

 bound, the space of eleven yards, three inches, thereby 



