310 SOME GENERAL REMARKS. 



heather, wide stretching downs of splendid 

 turf, and grassy ridings through wood and 

 dell, the horseman is hecoming a rarity ; a 

 cavalcade, unless hounds are out, never seen. 

 Yet what more delightful exercise than that 

 afforded hy the smooth, elastic paces of a 

 perfect hack, raouthed and made by a master 

 hand ? 



To acquire good hands, as the horseman 

 terms it, early practice and a naturally 

 sensitive touch are both required. A heavy- 

 fisted or otherwise clumsy person seldom 

 attains them. It is by reason of this natural 

 delicacy of touch, so often an attribute of 

 their sex, that ladies so frequently have good 

 hands — better than any man's, I have heard 

 it said. But this is not so. I have known 

 men with " hands " which no woman's could 

 excel ; while, moreover, when I have seen a 

 horse's mouth mercilessly jagged about, and 

 the whip unnecessarily used, it has (I regret to 

 say) been nearly as often by an uninstructed 



