18 PEECEPT AKD PRACTICE. 



the circuit of a field to avoid a fence that was not to 

 the taste of their master — that is, they could lay with 

 hounds, if ridden straight, but could not catch them. 

 In fact, he was nowhere with them, riding as he did. 

 He got rid of them, and then got three weeds 

 of thorough-bred ones ; giving us his new-formed 

 opinion, that " pace was nothing to thorough-breds" 

 — " an ounce of blood was worth a pound of bone" 

 — " blood is the ticket, after all." He even assumed 

 the style of riding of the jockey ; and had the 

 Racing Calendar by him, to show where his horses 

 had won a race against some wretches more worthless 

 than themselves, and been constantly beaten by 

 fourth or fifth-rate animals. Our hero was not 

 aware that they were so ; so thought his horses ran 

 well, though they did not win. "Hunter's pace," 

 he would say, **is nothing to a racehorse." He was 

 so far right ; it does not call often upon the full 

 speed of the racehorse, though a moderate one ; but 

 there must be some strength to cope with the 

 difference of a four-mile burst across country and 

 a mile spurt over a race-course, with perhaps ten 



