A HARD RIDER. 155 



risks both tlieir lives and limbs together like an honest 

 fellow : the other merely takes it out of his unfortu- 

 nate horse where his own dearly and well-beloved 

 neck is in no danger. I hate such a self-loving devil, 

 though I value my neck as much as others, and think 

 a boy of mine was not far out in an observation he 

 made — something like the one made by Abernethy 

 when a patient remarked that it gave him great pain 

 to raise his arm : "What a fool you must be then," 

 said he, " to raise it." — My boy said nearty the same 

 in effect. I was hunting with Ward : this boy was 

 on a five-year- old, quieting him to hounds. Will the 

 Whip was on a beast of a mare they called Long Jane, 

 and long enough, high enough, and lanky enough, 

 Lonsf Jane was : in short, as one of the machines for 

 boys to practise gymnastics upon, she would have 

 been invaluable. Poor Will put her at a ditch, and 

 in she went. " D — thy eyes (says Will), I knew 

 thee would' st tumble in when I put thee at it." — 

 " Then what a d — fool you must have been to have 

 done it ! " says the boy; who by-the-bye would ride at 

 any thing, the only difference being, he never thought 

 he should fall, or rather his horse. I certainly have 

 rode at many fences where I thought I stood a very 

 fair chance of a purl ; but as certainly never rode 

 at one where, as Will said, / knew I should get it. 

 — A hard rider is another thing. I will mention one 

 who lived on the middle of the hill going from Egham 

 to Englefield green : his name I forget, but Charles 

 Davis can vouch for the truth of my picture of the 

 man, who always hunted with the king's harriers 

 when Davis whipped in to his father (one of the most 

 respectable and superior men of his standing in life I 

 ever knew). This said hard rider weighed about 



