MR. smith's falls, 49 



he said, "All who profess to ride should know how to 

 falir 



" Mr. Smith got many falls. He always seemed to ride 

 loose, quite by balance, not sticking with his knees very 

 much. He always went slant-ways at his jumps; it is a 

 capital plan. The horse gets his measure better — he can 

 give himself more room : if you put his head straight, it is 

 measured for him ; if you put him slantish, he measures it 

 for himself; you always see Mr. Greene ride at fences that 

 way. He was first coming out when Mr. Smith was 

 master, and he put him up to many a clever thing in 

 riding. He had another dodge when he rode at timber ; he 

 always went slap at the post ; he said it made the horse 

 fancy he had more to do, and put more power on."* 



"No man," writes Nimrod in 1841, "knows so well as 

 Mr. Smith does how to fall^ which accounts for the trifling 

 injuries he has sustained ; and I once saw an instance of his 

 skill in this act of self-preservation. He stuck fast in a 

 bullfinch, on his tall grey horse, his hinder legs being 

 entangled in the growers, and there was every appearance 

 of the horse falling on his head into a deep ditch below 

 him. A less cool man than Mr. Smith might have thrown 

 himself from the saddle, in which case, had the growers 

 given way at the moment, for the animal appeared sus- 

 pended by them, his horse might have fallen upon him ere 

 he could have got out of his way. Mr. Smith, however, sat 

 quiet, and by that means the well-practised hunter got his 

 legs free, and landed himself in the field without farther 

 difficulty. At one time it appeared to me as if nothing 

 could prevent both falling headlong into the ditch." f 



An instance of one of his diagonal leaps is thus re- 

 corded : — The hounds coming in the course of a run to an 

 immensely high and steep bank, with a stile on the top of 



* " Silk and Scarlet," p. 57. 



t "Hunting Reminiscences." p. 297 



