RIDING RECOLLECTIONS 



the more willing at his fences the better, but it is 

 not indispensable that he should possess the 

 stride and power necessary to cover some twenty- 

 feet of distance, and four or five of height, at 

 every leap, nor the blood that can alone enable 

 him to repeat the exertion, over and over again, 

 at three-quarter speed in deep ground. To jump, 

 as it is called, from field to field, tries a horse's 

 stamina no less severely than his courage, while, 

 as I have already observed, there is no such 

 economy of effort, and even danger, as to make 

 two small fences out of a large one. 



I do not mean to say that there are any parts 

 of England where, if hounds run hard, a hunter, 

 with a workman on his back, has not enough to 

 do to live with them, but I do consider that, 

 ccBteris paribus, a good rider may smuggle a 

 moderate horse over most of our provincial 

 countries, whereas he would be helpless on the 

 same animal in Leicestershire or Northampton- 

 shire. There, on the other hand, an inferior 

 horseman, bold enough to place implicit confidence 

 in the first-class hunter he rides, may see a run, 

 from end to end, with considerable credit and 

 enjoyment, by the simple process of keeping a 

 good hold of his bridle, while he leaves every- 

 thing to the horse. But he must not have 

 learned a single letter of the noble word " Funk." 

 Directly his heart fails, and he interferes, down 



220 



