RIDING RECOLLECTIONS 



All I can say is, he used to ride them all in the 

 same place, well up with the hounds, but I think 

 I understand what he meant. He had his system, 

 of course, like every other master of the art, but 

 it admitted of endless variations according to 

 circumstances and the exigencies of the case. 

 No man, I conclude, rides so fast at a wall as a 

 brook, though he takes equal pains with his 

 handling in both cases, if in a different way, nor 

 would he deny a half-tired animal that support, 

 amounting even to a dead pull, which might 

 cause a hunter fresh out of his stable to imagine 

 his utmost exertions were required forthwith. 

 Nevertheless, whether " lobbing along " through 

 deep ground at the punishing period, when we 

 wish our fun was over, or fingering a rash one 

 delicately for his first fence, a stile, we will say, 

 downhill with a bad take-off, when we could 

 almost wish it had not begun, we equally require 

 such a combination of skill, science, and sagacity, 

 or rather common-sense, as goes by the name of 

 " hand." When the player possesses this quality 

 in perfection, it is wonderful how much can be 

 done with the instrument of which he holds the 

 strings. I remember seeing the Reverend John 

 Bower, an extraordinarily fine rider of the last 

 generation, hand his horse over an ugly iron- 

 bound stile, on to some stepping-stones, with a 

 drop of six or seven feet, into a Leicestershire 



So 



