RIDING RECOLLECTIONS 



to carry these exacting performers through a 

 run. 



Still the "h. f." would be nothing without his 

 spurs, and I grant that to him these instruments 

 are indispensable, if he is to get from one field to 

 another ; but of what use are they to such men as 

 Mr. Gilmour, Captain Coventry, Sir Frederic 

 Johnston, Captain Boyce, Mr. Hugh Lowther, 

 and a host more that I could name, who seem to 

 glide over Leicestershire, and other strongly-fenced 

 countries, as a bird glides through the air ? Day 

 after day, unless accidentally scored in a fall, you 

 may look in vain for a spur-mark on their horses' 

 sides. Shoulders and quarters, indeed, are red- 

 dened by gashes from a hundred thorns ; but the 

 virgin spot, a handsbreadth behind the girths, is 

 pure and stainless still. Yet not one of the 

 ofentlemen I have named will ride without the 

 instrument he uses so rarely, if at all ; and they 

 must cherish, therefore, some belief in its virtue, 

 when called into play, strong enough to counter- 

 balance its indisputable disadvantages — notably, 

 the stabbing of a hunter's side, when its rider's 

 foot is turned outwards by a stake or grower, and 

 the tearing of its back or quarters in the struggle 

 and confusion of a fall. There is one excellent 

 reason that, perhaps, I may have overlooked. It 

 is tiresome to answer the same question over and 

 over again, and in a field of two hundred sports- 



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