32 XIMROD QUOTED, 



such as it is, I am at your service ; I rob no man's 

 wardrobe, and hate second-hand clothes, though they 

 might have belonged to my superiors. 



"il/m'-s apropos dehottes'" — apropos to writing — 

 and apropos to riding, I am quite willing to subscribe 

 to the fact that Nimrod could write a chase better 

 than T ; but I must take the liberty of saying he could 

 not ride one as well ; and this is not saying much in 

 my favour in this respect either : assuming the opi- 

 nion I have stated as emanating from him, I can only 

 say I very much doubt whether in his own person he 

 ever rode at a fence in his life, where, if the specific 

 gravity of himself and horse did not break it, a regular 

 burster must have been the result. A¥e all know that 

 horses ridden hard at fences or even timber will break 

 what we should have considered it all but impossible 

 they would even crack. I have had horses break 

 gates with me, and that both with and without getting 

 a fall ; but candour must make me allow I never rode 

 at one contemplating such a result ; nor do I conceive, 

 if any man saw Lord Maidstone now and Sir Francis 

 Burdett (when he rode) refuse a bulfinch that they 

 saw their horses could not force themselves through, 

 that he or any man would ride at it, because he 

 miofht weiffh 17st. instead of 12st. : I mean of course 

 when such riders as I have named considered the 

 thing impracticable to them. The man would soon 

 get sick of it, and so would his horse. We know that 

 a ball of 501b. weight let fall from a height will make 

 more impression where it falls than one of 201b., but 

 this does not hold good in breaking fences : if it did, 

 what a devil of a fellow the famous Daniel Lambert 

 would have been on the twenty-one hands' high horse ! 

 Why, such names as Waterford, Wilton, Forester, 



