RIDING RECOLLECTIONS 



tomed rail on the far side of an " oxer " elicits 

 but a startling exertion, and a loud rattle of horn 

 and iron against wood, but ere long the slope 

 rises against him, the ridge-and-furrow checks 

 his stride, a field, dotted with ant-hills as large 

 as church-hassocks and not unlike them in shape, 

 to catch his toes and impede his action, changes 

 his smooth easy swing to a laborious flounder, 

 and presently at a thick bullfinch on the crest of 

 a grassy ridge, out of ground that takes him in 

 nearly to his hocks, comes the crisis. Too good 

 a hunter to turn over, he gets his shoulders out 

 and lets his rider see the fall before it is adminis- 

 tered, but down he goes notwithstanding, very 

 effectually, to rise again after a struggle, his 

 eye wild, nostril distended, and flanks heaving, 

 thoroughly pumped out ! 



He is a good horse, but you have brought him 

 into the wrong country, and this is the result. 



It would be a hopeless task to extract from 

 young Rapid's laconic phrases, and general 

 indifference, any particulars regarding the burst 

 in which, to give him his due, he has gone 

 brilliantly, or the merits of the horse that carried 

 him in the first flight without a mistake. He 

 wastes his time, his money, his talents, but not 

 his words. For him and his companions, 

 question and answer are cut short somewhat in 

 this wise : — 



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