172 HUNTING. 



duced an inordinate number of ' weeds ' among our racing 

 stock, and it may also be said that the majority of our steeple- 

 chasers would not carry heavy men, either fast or far, to hounds. 

 But size^ it must be remembered, does not necessarily mean 

 strength ; it has been w^ell said, // is action that carries weight. 

 A thorough-bred horse is always bigger than he looks, and 

 stronger. Nevertheless, it would be unwise to expect that these 

 always make the best hunters. It may be, as Dick Christian 

 said, that the greatest things have always been done by the 

 thorough-breds ; ' blood,' as the old adage goes, ' will tell,' and 

 no doubt in difficulties the blood horse will show the most 

 courage, will struggle the longest, and often get himself and his 

 rider out of scrapes which his lowlier-bred cousin will accept as 

 inevitable. Still, in the heavy cramped countries the plebeian 

 will often prove as useful as the aristocrat ; and possibly, from 

 his more phlegmatic temperament, a safer conveyance. Where 

 it is rather necessary for a horse to be as nimble as a cat, as 

 thick-skinned as a badger, and as patient as an ass, than to 

 gallop fast and leap big, a three-quarter, or even half-bred 

 horse is as useful a beast as a man need wish. There is also 

 rather a sense of these high-couraged, high-bred animals being 

 w^asted in such countries, to say nothing of their high prices. 

 Perhaps, after all is said on either side, the safest verdict to 

 fall back upon is this, that, whereas a half-bred horse cannot be 

 made of use in the great grass countries, a thorough-bred horse 

 can be made of use anywhere. 



The saying, a good horse cannot be of a bad colour, is, as 

 we have seen, susceptible of a double interpretation ; so is that 

 other saying, a good horse cannot be of a bad shape. A horse 

 may be perfect to a hair's breadth in every proportion, yet tho- 

 roughly worthless as a hunter ; on the other hand, many first-rate 

 hunters have been very queerly shaped, ' rum 'uns to look at, 

 but devils to go,' as the old song says. Mr. Sidney gives in his 

 book a portrait of a famous hunter, Unknown, who had carried 

 the thirteen stone of his master, Mr. John Bennett, for many 

 seasons with the Quorn and Pytchley without a fall, and was 



