130 THE SPORT OF KINGS 



tion ; as it is, I implicitly believe him when he 

 states that he is a nervous man. How, then, ac- 

 count for his being always amongst the choice few 

 who cut out the work ? I attribute this to his 

 strength of will. That he is a fine horseman with 

 seat, hands, and judgment goes without saying, and 

 having these good qualities, he is determined to 

 use them. " I don't like jumping these big rough 

 places," says he to himself, "but I am going to 

 jump them," and he does. Once when in Ireland 

 he asked a friend for a day's hunting with the 

 Ward. The friend had only one horse at liberty, 

 and that horse not a very desirable mount. He 

 could gallop and jump, it is true, but he was not 

 always in the humour, and he had put many a good 

 man "on the floor." There being nothing else 

 for it, he took the " uncertain " horse, and rode 

 out of the town in anything but a comfortable 

 frame of mind. "I don't like this," he said to a 

 friend he met on the road ; " the horse feels as if 

 he were going to do something, and I don't know 

 how or when he will begin." They arrived at the 

 fixture all right, and the stag was enlarged. Now 

 the gentleman in question had never ridden over 

 Meath in his life, and he thought the sooner he 

 got out of or into his difficulties the better. So 

 immediately hounds were laid on he rattled his 

 horse to the front, and in a field or two had got a 

 good lead. The horse, who was a fine jumper 

 and fast withal, never gave him any trouble, and 

 he maintained the lead to the finish, which I should 

 think is a record performance. And this is a man 

 who complains that he is short of nerve. Surely 

 there is nothing so curious about a man as his 

 riding nerve. 



