PART l.^HUNTING. 



CHAPTER I. 



The hunting-field as a school — Qualifications necessary for riding to 

 hounds — Learning to ride — Ponies for children — Stirrup-leathers 

 not to be used for children learning to ride— Encouragement of 

 nerve and confidence in children learning to ride — Knock- 

 kneed children — Value of learning to ride without stirrups — 

 Avoidance of damage when falling — Riding without saddles — 

 Irish lady riders — -Miss Bellew — Empress of Austria and Queen 

 of Naples — The art of falling — American Guacho system of 

 learning to fall — Use of too short stirrup-leathers — Learning to 

 fall ; size of stirrup-irons — Danger of riding in too short leathers 

 — Reliance on stirrups dangerous — Loss of stirrup-leathers — 

 Patrick Caffrey — Strained groin and its avoidance — Riding 

 without judgment — Accidents to author — Proposed school for 

 instruction in falling — Confidence gained by learning how to 

 fall — -Injury to horses' backs, and how to avoid it — Riding in a 

 strange country where the banks are rotten — Boldness of young 

 horses in flying fences. 



In the compilation of a book on sport such as the 

 present, some one sport must Mead the van,' and since 

 the ' pride of place ' is by common accord so worthily 

 ceded to ' Hunting,' it is but fitting, therefore, that that 

 sport should form the subject of our first considera- 

 tion. 



We Britons not unjustly pride ourselves, not only 

 on our inborn pluck, but also on the superior quality 

 of our horses, and our ability to ride them. Nor is 



I 



