/ 



RIDING RECOLLECTIONS 



run, the rider could not help expostulating with 

 the walker on such a perverse misapplication 

 of strength, energy, and perseverance. "Why, 

 look at the work you have been doing," said his 

 lordship; "with a quarter of the labour you 

 miofht have earned three or four shillinors at least. 

 What a fool you must be, Mick, to neglect your 

 business, and lose half your potatoes, that you 

 may come out with my hounds ! " 



Mick reflected a moment, and looked up. " Ah ! 

 me lard," replied he, with such a glance of fun as 

 twinkles nowhere but in the Irish blue of an Irish 

 eye, "it's truth your lardship's spakin' this night ; 

 av there was no fools, there d be sorra few fox- 

 hunters!'' 



Let us return to the question of discretion, and 

 how we are to combine it with an amusement that 

 makes fools of us all. 



While valour, then, bids us take our fences as 

 they come, discretion teaches us that each should 

 be accomplished in the manner most suitable to 

 its peculiar requirements. When a bank offers 

 foothold, and we see the possibility of dividing a 

 large leap by two, we should pull back to a trot, 

 and give our horse a hint that he will do well to 

 spring on and off the obstacle in accordance with 

 a motion of our hand. If, on the contrary, his 

 effort must be made at a black and forbidding 

 bullfinch, with the chance of a wide ditch, or even 



130 



