174 LADIES ON HORSEBACK. 



could not possibly exist. Is it wilful blind- 

 ness, or merely the desire to banish landlordism 

 from the country which induces this senseless 

 outcry ? If the latter, there is unhappily 

 every probability that the outcriers will 

 succeed ; if the former, there may be some 

 hope of ultimately unclosing their sealed 

 eyehds. 



A body of horsemen galloping over grass- 

 land during the hunting season can never 

 occasion injury ; it is simply an absurdity to 

 endeavour to maintain a contrary theory. A 

 great friend of mine and a most practical 

 gentleman, who possesses a large common 

 attached to his grounds, upon which he can, 

 if desirable, exercise his horses, always 

 prefers doing so throughout the winter upon 

 his finest grass-land. He maintains, and 

 correctly, that they do it an immensity of 

 good, and once offered (to prove the correct- 

 ness of his judgment) to give the use of the 

 said land to the colonel of a cavalry regiment 

 stationed in his vicinity — to do aU his work 

 upon throughout the winter months. The 

 offer, after some demur, was accepted, and 



