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make him take it in stroke, and when he does take it, see what 

 a catapult effort he makes to clear it. If the water be twenty feet- 

 wide, and he lands clear without baulk or fall, it will be a feat to be 

 talked of for a whole season, yet the distance is less than what he 

 covers in his ordinary stride. This phenomenon is caused, of course, by 

 the fact that when approaching a jump at a gallop a horse will always 

 shorten his stride, and collecting his hind legs well under him will spring 

 when all four are close together, and thus is produced the jerk we feel. It 

 is even betting that a seasoned hunter, although well able for twenty-four 

 feet, will not jump twelve feet of water without in some way disturbing, 

 it. A young one, full of impetuosity, will, but the old one won't. 



The position in which horses and dogs are drawn, when galloping, is 

 perfectly unnatural, and one it is absolutely impossible for them, even' 

 for the hundredth part of a second, to be in. Never can both fore 

 legs and both hind legs be extended at the same time ; one foot must 

 always be on the ground, except when the animal is travelling through 

 the air in the act of jumping, and even then the legs can never be^ 

 spreadeagled as they are usually represented in a picture. When, how- 

 ever, an artist draws a horse in position at all resembling the proper — 

 with legs doubled up and crossing each other— what a horrible effect it 

 has, simply because we are not accustomed to that style, nor is the real 

 position as discernible in the object as is the imaginary elongation. To 

 become convinced on the subject one has only to observe attentively 

 how a horse's legs move when he is in a slow canter — they go through 

 precisely the same action when galloping, only, of course, quicker. 



Artists, like poets, seem to take a licence ; anyway, they sometimes 

 produce funny illustrations. As a rule, when painting or drawing a 

 horse galloping, they will show his fore-feet a long way in front of his- 

 nose, oblivious of the fact that his nose is always foremost, and the feet 

 can never extend beyond it. 



Even the great Landseer occasionally used his brush upside down. 

 In his picture of the forge, which has been copied oftener than perhaps 

 any other, the horse is placed with his head to the light, which necessi- 

 tates the poor smith to do his work in the dark! In other pictures^ 

 where he shows wild fowl, we see the mallard with his mouth open- 

 evidently in the act of quacking, and the ducks with theirs shut. 

 Surely every old woman knows that a drake never quacks, while a 

 duck is continually doing so. These sort of mistakes are unpardonable, 

 and spoil the whole picture in the eye of the man who knows what 

 is what, even though he be no judge of the picture as a work of art,, 

 and unable himself to draw a line on canvas. 



I find I have run riot and got altogether off the line of my chapter. 

 Perhaps all the better for getting my readers off the very rough line- 

 they have followed me over previous pages. However, I must hark 

 back to the proper scent. 



As I said before, Punchestown and Fairyhouse are the only real 

 steeplechase courses we now have in Ireland, for the fences are all 

 natural, and the tracks have almost every description of fence. They 



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