THE BT..VCKSMITH 183 



What an unfavourable opinion of foxhunters any one would 

 drawwho merely saw them arrive at a blacksmith's on losing 

 a shoe in the middle of a run. To heighten the loser's chagrin, 

 after seeing all his lovely companions gradually disappear, 

 when at length, horse in hand, he arrives at the pointed out 

 spot, it's ten to one but he finds the shop empty, the black- 

 smith after the hounds, and the apprentice shading the sun 

 from his eyes with his hand on the top of a distant wall, 

 straining his sight after the pack. Then when the unfor- 

 tunate sportsman does get a creature to attend his behest, 

 what gaping, poking, and searching after what they know 

 they have not, work there is ; what fumbling of dray-horse 

 shoes, and measuring of donkey ones, to see if they will fit. 

 The cj'c seems useless to some fellows, they are never satisfied 

 a thing won't do, until the}' measure it. If a man has not a 

 shoe with him, the only plan is to get the best fitting old shoe 

 the shop will afford put on. Don't let the fidgety sportsman 

 hurry the man, or he will most likely drive a nail into the 

 quick. Let "patience" be the word, and if on getting the 

 horse to the door, and leading him on a few yards, he walks 

 sound, let our sportsman remount and see if a lucky check or 

 turn will not let him in again. 



Some people are verj' easily " cowed," if we may use such 

 an expression in connection with hunting, on losing hounds, 

 and never attempt to catch them if they once get away from 

 them, or to fall in with them again after getting a lost shoe 

 replaced. Instead of doing so, they indulge in all sorts of 

 imprecations, and conjectures as to the splendour of the affair 

 they are losing. A pack out of sight are always supposed to 

 be going best pace, whereas, perhaps, they are pottering on 

 the other side of the hill, picking the scent over fallows or 

 cattle-stained ground. A hunt is not like a steeple-chase, 

 where a few minutes make all the difference. We have seen 

 a man lose a shoe, find a smith, get another put on, and jump 



