208 THE HUNTING-FIELD. 



" I do not tliink that at all unlikely/^ said I 

 laughing. ^^I do poke a horse out of queer 

 corners sometimes, though I never buy ^ three- 

 cornered horses.' I hate an ugly one, or common- 

 bred looking beast.^' 



" Now/' said he, '' this being over, I want to 

 know why you told me to take that hedge and 

 ditch diagonally, when I have heard you say 

 horses cannot go too straight at fences?'' 



" There are not at present half-a-dozen fences 

 in this country," said I, ^4ike the one in question; 

 but I have hunted where they are common ; and 

 the man who has taken that farm comes from such 

 country. That hedge," said I, "is chiefly a live 

 one; before he came, it was a regular ^bullfincher;' 

 the bottom growth of the thorns as big as a 

 man's arm or leg. He has cut these partly 

 through, at perhaps two foot and a half from the 

 bottom ; the upper part is laid down all one way ; 

 if your horse took this in the least diagonally 

 towards the growing i^art, and hit it, it w^ould no 

 more give way than the strongest gate that ever was 

 made, and down you must come. Or if you take 

 such a fence straight and hit it, the force of the 

 horse is not sufficient to draw the branch from its 

 position: but taken diagonally towards the smaller 

 and brushy end of the hedging, if you hit it, it 

 yields, goes with your horse as it were, and he 

 figuratively slides over it. Taking any fence 



