RIDING RECOLLECTIONS 



man, or, as he is there called, "a boy," with a 

 short pipe in his mouth and a spade in his hand. 

 The light-hearted operative, gay, generous, reck- 

 less, high-spirited, and by no means a free worker, 

 simply throws a bank up with the soil that he 

 scoops out of the ditch, reversing the process, 

 and filling the latter by levelling the former, 

 when a passage is required for carts, or cattle, 

 from one enclosure to the next. I ought never- 

 theless to observe, that many landlords, with a 

 munificence for which I am at a loss to account, 

 go to the expense of erecting massive pillars of 

 stone, ostensibly gate - posts, at commanding 

 points, between which supports, however, they 

 seldom seem to hang a gate, though it is but 

 justice to admit that when they do, the article is 

 usually of iron, very high, very heavy, and 

 fastened with a strong padlock, though its object 

 seems less apparent, when we detect within 

 convenient distance on either side a gap through 

 which one might safely drive a gig. 



It is obvious, then, that this kind of fence, at 

 its widest and deepest, requires considerable 

 activity as well as circumspection on a horse's 

 part, and forbearance in handling on that of a 

 rider. The animal must gather itself to spring 

 like a goat, on the crest of the eminence it has 

 to surmount, with perfect liberty of head and 

 neck, for the climb, and subsequent effort, that 



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