174 THE IIUxNTI^G-riELD. 



horse's skin into the hargain ; are lucky if you do 

 not get him stubbed for no sport at all ; and after 

 coming home, it takes a man an hour to search 

 for and pick thorns out of his legs. I don't ask 

 much favour, but I do like a ' clear stage/ 



"I mean to show you to-morrow one of the 

 most perfect packs of harriers (ever and in all cases 

 to be excepted those formerly belonging to his 

 Majesty) I ever saw ; their huntsman, though an 

 elderly man, would ride at the Thames if he 

 wanted to get to his hounds, and his whipper-in 

 would follow him. 



" You will, with old Mullins, see a description 

 of bold riding found, I believe, with few men 

 but himself; you will see him bundle his horse 

 through, or over, such queer places as no other 

 man would dream of encountering. His horses 

 never refuse, and always get over, somehow ; 

 where they cannot jump, they will crawl up, and 

 slide down ; places where others would break their 

 necks or backs ; and certainly he does sometimes 

 unexpectedly emerge from such extraordinary 

 holes and corners as men and horses never could 

 be expected to come from : as to following him 

 through a day, the thing would be impossible ; for, 

 where you or I should be looking for a practicable 

 part of a fence, through some unaccountable hole 

 he rams his horse, and leaves one in amazement 

 how on earth he ever got through. His horses 



