" ALL IS NOT GOLD THAT GLITTERS." 99 



" You seCj therefore, my friend, that, good 

 as your mare may be, if she won going four miles 

 under eleven stone, and had then little or nothing 

 left in her, the chance of her carrying twelve with 

 hounds is not a flattering one ; for if you hunt in 

 a fast countr}^, you will frequently get a burst 

 very little inferior as to pace to a steeple-chase. 

 After the three or four miles of a steeple-chase, 

 distressed or not, the horse is clothed up and led 

 home. After a burst of the same distance with 

 hounds, his work is only, comparatively speaking, 

 begun : thus, though your mare, after going four 

 miles of country in a steeple-chase, most probably 

 (as a winner always does) called forth the plaudits 

 of the spectators, and was followed, praised, and 

 admired as a nonpareil, had you ridden her a 

 little over the same distance in a fast run, she 

 would most likely have shown herself to be in a 

 state that would cause her to be set down as not 

 worth a halfpenny. Of course, I do not mean to 

 say it necessarily follows that such would be the 

 case ; what I say is merely to guard you against 

 being deceived by the supposition, that a horse 

 that can win a steeple-chase must be a good 

 hunter. The chances are, I grant, in his favour 

 that he is a good horse; but it is, at the same 

 time, quite possible that after a certain distance, 

 Avhich is, in racing term, ' his length,^ he may be 

 one of the veriest curs and brutes living ; but we 



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