156 A KIND HUSBAND. 



14 St., and kept a miserable little pony, on Avliich lie 

 hunted. He never was quiet. The moment a hound 

 challenged, in went the spurs, and off he was, as if a 

 fox was found in an open country. I believe he 

 hunted the poor pony to death. I met him some time 

 afterwards, when he told me he had bought a regular 

 hunter, and on this he appeared some time afterwards, 

 in the person of a black galloway mare, about 13^ 

 hands, and thin as a lath. If he rode as he did on the 

 pony, what did he do on this superior animal ? He 

 put on the steam in good earnest till she stopped. 

 On my remonstrating with him on his cruelty, he re- 

 marked he was always a hard rider ! Now this bears 

 me out in what I once stated in my Remarks on 

 Cruelty, " that a man who was cruel to his horse 

 would be found so in every situation in life." I was 

 told a greater brute to a wife never existed than this 

 hard rider. He had neither head nor hands ; but he 

 had heels, and spurs on them for his horse ; and, if re- 

 port says true, arms and fists, or a stick at the end of 

 them for his wife : at any rate he saw the end of her. 

 I make no doubt but the generality of the hunting 

 men of 1844 mil contend that hunting never was 

 known in such perfection as during the last twenty 

 years. Quite younkers, I know, think that even 

 twenty j^ears since people knew little about doing it 

 as they think it ought to be done : but as to the sport 

 their fathers enjoyed when of their age, they consider 

 the thing must have been a burlesque upon hunting. 

 These young gentlemen are a little too fast ; and I 

 maintain that hunting may be, nay has already 

 been, too fast. In this I am quite sure many of the 

 best sportsmen will agree with me. It has in fact 

 ceased to be hunting. I love both racing and hunt- 



