268 HOUSES AND HOUNDS. 



asked him if he was hurt 1 " Hurt !" he said, " I am not often 

 hurt." That was true enough, for no man had more falls with- 

 out being hurt than himself. He was soon in the saddle, having 

 held the rein in his hand, which most men who ride for a fall 

 do. A brook being just then before us, he went down at it, a 

 hundred miles an hour pace, with a sneering cheer to me — 

 " Now come along, we are even again." I merely laughed at 

 his bad humour, and was soon over alongside of him. He then 

 rode up hill as hard as he could go, at some stiff posts and rails. 

 Crash went the top bar, and over rolled horse and rider together, 

 I thanked him for letting me through so easily. He angrily 

 replied that he was not yet beaten, and, mounting again, 

 charged a five-barred gate leading into a turnpike-road. This 

 was a settler. His horse fell over, and threw his rider with 

 great violence nearly across the road ; and this time he was 

 really hurt, and obliged to confess it. Having waited until 

 it was ascertained that no bones were broken, although he 

 was most seriously bruised, I prevailed upon him to go quietly 

 home. 



We hear of men riding for a fall, and it may be one way of 

 getting to the other side of a fence ; but I must plead my igno- 

 rance in not being able, either to see the fun of the thing, or the 

 necessity for it. The multiplicity of falls in a season may be 

 proof of hard riding and indomitable courage, but it argues no- 

 thing for good horsemanship. He who can ride quietly and 

 well to hounds without them has the greatest claim to the cha- 

 racter of a really good performer over country. Accidents will 

 happen in the best-regulated families, and every man must ex- 

 pect to embrace mother earth occasionally ; but riding a horse, 

 when blown, at an impracticable fence, is, in my humble 

 opinion, a great piece of folly. I have ridden as hard as any 

 man in my youthful days, and, when riding only about ten 

 stone, used to prefer taking gates to any other fence. 



In our vale country banks with double ditches prevailed, and 

 I think the heavy weights across this country could hold their 

 way quite as well as the light ones, if not better. A good 

 workman, of thirteen or fourteen stone, on a powerful horse, 

 will get over or through stiff bounds or hedges, where a light 

 weight would be nearly torn out of his saddle ; and in charging 

 an upright quickset of seven or eight years' growth, it requires 

 power and strength to get through that which it is impossible 

 to jump over, the sticks only bending to let one through and 

 then closing after. 



The best man in our hunt was a sporting baronet, who had 

 been in the Light Dragoons, but on taking to fox-hunting he 



