LEAPING BROOKS. 2()9 



give a large price for a hunter, how high soever 

 may be his character, that has been only hunted 

 in counties like Hampshire or parts of Wiltshire, 

 where there are no brooks but such as, from the 

 soundness of their bottoms, horses may walkthrough. 

 We have already stated the most likely way to 

 make a young horse a good brook-jumper ; a very 

 superior accomplishment in a hunter, and chiefly 

 to be attained by his acquiring confidence. 



There is one other untoward circumstance at- 

 tending leaping brooks with hounds. They are, for 

 the most part, met with in the middle of a field, 

 and it often happens that, until the horseman ar- 

 rives on the very brink of them, he cannot form a 

 correct estimate of their nature or extent. They 

 also vary much in both these respects, we mean in 

 the soundness or unsoundness of their banks, and 

 in their width, in the space of a few yards ; so that 

 it is in some measure a matter of chance w^hether 

 you have to leap a wide brook or a narrow one. 

 But then, it may be said, you can always satisfy 

 yourself on these points. True ; you may do so : 

 but what would too often be the consequence i 

 Why, if you show your horse a brook before you 

 ride him at it, it would too frequently happen that 

 he would not have it at all ; add to which, whilst 

 you were doing this, on a good scenting day, the 

 hounds would get a long way a-head of you. Be- 

 sides, the ms vwida, or momentum of the horse's 

 gallop, so necessary to get him wtII over wide 

 brooks with rotten banks, is wanted, but in this 

 case it would to a certain extent be lost ; and if he 



