HISTORY AND LITERATURE 35 



(they are the ' old men ' of ours !) rode, he thought, with better 

 judgment and science than their fathers, and with quite as 

 much pluck. Comparisons, however, are always odious where 

 there exists no sound ground for making them. Those who 

 may feel a desire to try and puzzle out one for themselves can- 

 not do better than turn to the pages of ' Nimrod ' and ' The 

 Druid,' where, if the question may be solved, they will find 

 ample means for solving it. That Lords Jersey, Forester, and 

 Delamere, Messrs. Assheton Smith and Osbaldeston, and others 

 of that period were splendid riders, is undoubted. That fences 

 were fewer, as is sometimes asserted, is not the case, for many 

 have been thrown down. Ox fences or rails were more 

 numerous, and bullfinches also ; but they did not cut and 

 plaish the fences then, and they knew not the binders that 

 turn horses over. They used to fly the oxers or crash through 

 the bullfinch. That neither hounds nor horses went so fast 

 then, is undoubted. As fewer men hunted, it was easier to get 

 good horses. There was more room, not so much hurry and 

 crowding ; and more pleasure. There were fine horsemen 

 and good riders across country, there have also been the same 

 since, and there are happily many now. For our part we have 

 tried to bring the history of hunting down to the period when 

 it had reached the phase familiar to us. Having done that, 

 the real business of our book begins, and to the great deeds 

 and the great men who did them we shall from time to lime 

 find other occasions to refer. 



D a 



