Melto7i : its Horses and Hounds. 6 1 



hang heavily on your hands ; if you delight in whist or 

 loo, or such like entertainments, you will be able to 

 indulge your fancy. 



" Tell me, me boy,^^ said a hard-riding man from 

 the county Meath, the other evening, ^^ What is the 

 meaning of ^ Vingt-et-un ' ? ^^ 



"Wliy 21, of course/^ I replied. 



"Well, faith," said he, "I thought it was 22, and I 

 have been thrying for it all the night long,^'' which 

 accounted satisfactorily for his apparently eccentric 

 style of play, and the " pot of money " he lost. 



Then, having got your stud in condition, you should, 

 if you are a moderate man, intending to hunt every 

 day in the week, but yet content to have only two 

 horses out each day, have a string of 16 fit to go, four 

 thoroughbred galloping hacks, and a pair for the 

 phaeton, and then you will be able to get along. You 

 cannot do better after this than make the acquaintance 

 of Mr. Burbige, whose exploits on his well-known grey 

 have been so often narrated, and you will soon gain a 

 knowledge of the ^^ country.''^ 



If you have confidence in yourself you will select 

 your own line, looking well forward, and never hesi- 

 tating as to which part of the fence you should go at^ 

 but sitting well down on your horse, and going in for 

 a good start. You ought — all the foregoing condi- 

 tions being carefully observed — to make one of the first 

 flight. Should you, however, not have implicit confi- 

 dence in your own powers, and decide on following 

 some good man, don^t follow Lord Carington for 

 choice ) for you will find him an ugly customer if you 

 take him for a pilot, and not all your money will save 

 you from coming a cropper if you try to steer close in 



