304 REMINISCENCES OF A HUNTSMAN 



the stream ; but by dint of increased action he beat the current, 

 and reached a gravelly shoal, on which I let him rest, and then, 

 with a second struggle, landed him in the road at the foot of 

 the bridge. The instant he was out of the water he set to 

 kicking, and it was with the greatest difficulty that he was 

 secm-ed. At last I had the satisfaction of leading the old 

 favourite beneath the windows, to assure the ladies of his safety ; 

 but either tlu-ough cold, or a strain in his back and loins, he 

 was ever after more or less affected. 



Every animal can swim, of course, more or less ; and many a 

 life would have been saved from drowning if men, in moments 

 of danger, had but remembered this fact, and, instead of part- 

 ing company with their horse, held fast on to his mane. 

 " Never desert the ship " is one of the most useful sayings on 

 record, extending from the ship to the carriage when the horses 

 are running away or restive, and to the horse in the water. 

 The loss of the head, or rather of the use of the functions of 

 the brain, in hours of peril, has proved as fatal as the cannon- 

 ball ; while, at the same time, the art of swimming has disowned 

 as many people, perhaps, as it has saved. Still, every man 

 should he able to swim, and should reserve that power as one to 

 save from danger, and not exert it as an acquired amusement ; 

 for it is in the incautious use of it in dangerous places, and in 

 fresh water where there are cold springs, inducing cramp, that 

 the ai't and amusement of swimming leads to death. In the 

 ornamental piece of water at Stoke Park, the keeper's son seized 

 on a gentleman's horse, and rode it into the water, in an attempt 

 to save one of my deer from the hounds. He was soon out of 

 his depth, and not understanding horsemanshi]i, he held fast on 

 to the curb; the result of this was, that the horse began to 

 get upright in the water, to paw in the same j)lace, and would 

 very soon have been backwards, when I cried out " to let his 

 head go." The man's head was gone, and understanding nothing 

 but the advice " to let go," he parted altogether with the horse, 

 and, to my hori'or, disappeared, as he could not swim, over the 

 horse's tail. All this time — for the struggle between horse and 



