RIDING RECOLLECTIONS 



the ^«(^-hard, so much as a brook. It is difficult, 

 you see, to please them, the uncertainty of the 

 limpid impediment being little less forbidding 

 than the certainty of the stiff! 



But it does require dash and coolness, pluck 

 and nerve, a certain spice of something that may 

 fairly be called valour, to charge cheerfully at a 

 brook when we have no means of ascertaining 

 its width, its depth, or the soundness of its banks. 

 Horses, too, are apt to share the misgivings of 

 their riders, and water-jumping, like a loan to a 

 poor relation, if not done freely, had better not 

 be done at all. 



The fox, and consequently the hounds, as we 

 know, will usually cross at the narrowest place, 

 but even if we can mark the exact spot, fences, 

 or the nature of the ground, may prevent our 

 getting there. What are we to do ? If we 

 follow a leader, and he drops short, we are 

 irretrievably defeated ; if we make our own 

 selection, the gulf may be as wide as the 

 Thames. "Send him at it .'"says valour, "and 

 take your chance ! " Perhaps it is the best plan 

 after all. There is something in luck, a good 

 deal in the reach of a horse's stride at a gallop, 

 and if we do get over, we rather flatter ourselves 

 for the next mile or two that we have "done the 

 trick ! " 



To enter on the subject of " hard riding," as it 



114 



