the beautiful style in which my leader brought
his horse to its effort. Yery strong in the saddle,
with the finest hands in the world, leaning far
back, and sitting well down, he seemed to rouse
120 BIDING EECOLLECTIONS
as it were, and concentrate the energies of the
animal for its last half-stride, when, rearing
itself almost perpendicularly, it contrived to
get safe over, only breaking the top rail with a
hind leg.
This must have lowered the leap by at least a
foot, yet when I came to it, thus reduced, and
" made easy," it was still a formidable obstacle,
and I felt thankful to be on a good jumper.
Of late years I have seen Mr. Powell, who is
usually very well mounted, ride over exceedingly
high and forbidding timber so persistently, as to
have earned from that material, the nom de
cJiasse by which lie is known amongst his friends.
But perhaps the late Lord Cardigan, the last
of the Brudenells, afforded in the hunting-field,
as in all other scenes of life, the most striking
example of that "pluck" which is totally in-
dependent of youth, health, strength, or any
other physical advantage. The courage that
in advanced middle-age governed the steady
manoeuvres of Bulganak, and led the death-ride
at Balaclava, burned bright and fierce to the end.
The graceful seat might be less firm, the tall
soldier-like figure less upright, but Mars, one of
his last and best hunters, was urged to charge
wood and water by the same bold heart at
seventy, that tumbled Langar into the Upping-
ham road over the highest gate in Leicestershire
at twenty-six. The foundation of Lord Car-
VALOUR 121
digan's whole character was valour. He loved
it, he prized it, he admired it in others, he was
conscious and proud of it in himself.
So jealous was he of this chivalrous quality,
that even in such a matter of mere amusement
as riding across a country, he seemed to attach
some vague sense of disgrace to the avoidance
of a leap, however dangerous, if hounds were
running at the time, and was notorious for the
recklessness with which he would plunge into
the deepest rivers though he could not swim a
stroke !
This I think is to court real danger for no
sufficient object.
Lord Wolverton, than whom no man has
ridden straighter and more enthusiastically to
hounds, ever since he left Oxford, once crossed
the Thames in this most perilous fashion, for he,
too, has never learnt to swim, during a run with
" the Queen's." "But," said I, protesting sub-
sequently against such hardihood, " you were
risking your life at every stroke."
"I never thought of that," was the answer,
" till I got safe over, and it was no use bothering
about it then."
Lord Cardigan however, seemed well aware of
his danger, and, in my own recollection, had two
very narrow escapes from drowning in these un-
called-for exploits.
The gallant old cavalry officer's death was in
122 BIDING RECOLLECTIONS
keeping with his whole career. At threescore
years and ten he insisted on mounting a
dangerous animal that he would not have per-
mitted any friend to ride. What happened is still
a mystery. The horse came home without him,
and he never spoke again, though he lived till
the following day.
But these are sad reflections for so cheerful a
subject as daring in the saddle. Eed is our
colour, not black, and, happily, in the sport we
love, there are few casualties calling forth more
valour than is required to sustain a bloody nose,
a broken collar-bone, or a sound ducking in a
wet ditch. Yet it is extraordinary how many
good fellows riding good horses find themselves
defeated in a gallop after hounds, from indecision
and uncertainty, rather than want of courage,
when the emergency actually arises. Though the
danger, according to Sir Francis Head, is about
a ha'p'orth, it might possibly be valued at a
penny, and nobody wants to discover, in his own
person, the exact amount. Therefore are the
chivalry of the Midland Counties to be seen on
occasion panicstricken at the downfall or dis-
appearance of a leader. And a dozen feet of
dirty water will wholly scatter a field of horse-
men who would confront an enemy's fire without
the quiver of an eye-lash. Except timber, of
which the risk is obvious, at a glance, nothing
frightens the 7^a//-hard, so much as a brook. It
VALOUE 123
is difficult, you see, to please them, the uncer-
tainty of the limpid impediment being little less
forbidding than the certainty of the stiff !
But it does require dash and coolness, pluck
and nerve, a certain spice of something that may
fairly be called valour, to charge cheerfully at a
brook when we have no means of ascertaining its
width, its depth, or the soundness of its banks.
Horses too are apt to share the misgivings of
their riders, and water-jumping, like a loan to a
poor relation, if not done freely, had better not
be done at all.
The fox, and consequently the hounds, as we
know, will usually cross at the narrowest place,
but even if we can mark the exact spot, fences,
or the nature of the ground may prevent our
getting there. What are we to do ? If we
follow a leader, and he drops short, we are
irretrievably defeated, if we make our own
selection, the gulf may be as wide as the
Thames. " Send him at it !" says valour, "and
take your chance!" Perhaps it is the best plan
after all. There is something in luck, a good
deal in the reach of a horse's stride at a gallop,
and if we do get over, we rather flatter ourselves
for the next mile or two that we have "done the
trick!"
To enter on the subject of " hard riding," as
it is called, without honourable mention of the
habit and the side-saddle, would in these days
124 BIDING RECOLLECTIONS
betray both want of observation and politeness ;
but ladies, though they seem to court danger no
less freely than admiration, possess, I think, as
a general rule, more pluck than nerve. I can
recall an instance very lately, however, in which I
saw displayed by one of the gentlest of her sex, an
amount of courage, coolness, and self-possession,
that would have done credit to a hero. This
lady, who had not quite succeeded in clearing a
high post-and-rail with a boggy ditch on the
landing side, was down and under her horse.
The animal's whole weight rested on her legs,
so as to keep her in such a position, that her
head lay between its fore and hind feet, where
the least attempt at a struggle, hemmed in by
those four shining shoes, must have dashed her
brains out. She seemed in no way concerned
for her beauty, or her life, but gave judicious
directions to those who rescued her as calmly
and courteously as if she had been pouring out
their tea.
The horse, though in that there is nothing
unusual, behaved like an angel, and the fair
rider was extricated without very serious injury ;
but I thought to myself, as I remounted and rode
on, that if a legion of Amazons could be rendered
amenable to discipline they would conquer the
world.
No man, till he has tried the experiment, can
conceive how awkward and powerless one feels
VALOUR 125
in a lady's seat. They themselves affirm that
with the crutch, or second pommel on the near
side, they are more secure than ourselves ; but
when I see those delicate, fragile forms flying
over wood and water, poised on precipitous
banks, above all, crashing through strong bull-
finches, I am struck w r ith admiration at the
mysteries of nature, among which not the least
wonderful seems the feminine desire to excel.
And they do excel when resolved they will, even
in those sports and exercises which seem more
naturally belonging to the masculine department.
It was but the other day, a boatman in the
Channel told me he saw a lady swimming alone
more than half a mile off shore. Now that the
universal rink has brought skating into fashion,
the "many-twinkling feet," that smoothest glide
and turn most deftly, are shod with such
dainty boots as never could be worn by the
clumsier sex. At lawn-tennis the winning
service is offered by some seductive hoyden in
her teens ; and, although in the game of cricket
the Graces have as yet been males, at no distant
day we may expect to see the best batsman at
the Oval bowled out, or perhaps caught by a
woman !
Yes, the race is in the ascendant. It takes
the heaviest fish, I mean real fish with a rod
and line. It kills its grouse right and left in
the moor among the heather. It shoulders a
126 BIDING RECOLLECTIONS
rifle no heavier than a pea-shooter, but levels
the toy so straight that, after some cunning
stalk, a " stag of ten " goes down before the
white hand and taper finger, as becomes his
antlers and his sex. Lastly, when it gets upon
Bachelor, or Benedict, or Othello, or any other
high-flyer with a suggestive name, it sails away
close, often too close, to the hounds, leaving
brothers, husbands, even admirers hopelessly in
the rear.
Now, I hope I am not going to express a senti-
ment that will offend their prejudices, and cause
young women to call me an old one, but I do
consider that in these days, ladies who go out
hunting ride a turn too hard. Far be it from me
to assert that the Field is no place for the fair ;
on the contrary, I hold that their presence adds
in every respect to its chance. Neither would I
protest against their jumping, and relegate them
to the bridle-roads or lanes. Nothing of the
kind. Let the greatest care be taken in the
selection of their horses ; let their saddles and
bridles be fitted to such a nicety that sore backs
and sore mouths are equally impossible, and let
trustworthy servants be told off to attend them
during the day. Then, with everything in their
favour, over a fair country, fairly fenced, why
should they not ride on and take their pleasure ?
But even if their souls disdain to follow a
regular pilot (and I may observe his office
VALOUR 127
requires no little nerve, as they are pretty quick
on to a leader if he gets down), I would entreat
them not to try " cutting out the work," as it is
called, but rather to wait and see one rider, at
least, over a leap before they attempt it them-
selves. It is frightful to think of a woman
landing in a pit, a water-course, or even so deep
a ditch as may cause the horse to roll over her
when he falls. With her less muscular frame
she is more easily injured than a man ; with her
finer organisation she cannot sustain injury as
well. It turns one sick to think of her dainty
head between a horse's hind-legs, or of those
cruel pommels bruising her delicate ribs and
bosom. It is at least twenty to ono in our
favour every time we fall, whereas with her the
odds are all the other way, and it is almost
twenty to one she must be hurt.
What said the wisest of kings concerning a
fair woman without discretion ? We want no
Solomon to remind us that with her courage
roused, her ambition excited, all the rivalry of
her nature called into play, she has nowhere
more need of this judicious quality than in the
hunting-field.
CHAPTER VIII
DISCRETION
IT has been called the better part of valour, and
doubtless, when wanting, the latter is as likely
to sustain irretrievable reverses as a ship with-
out a rudder, or a horse without a bridle. The
two should always travel together ; but it
appears to me that we meet the cautious
brother most frequently on our journey through
life.
In the chase, however, they seem to share
their presence impartially enough. Valour is
very much to the front at the covert side, and
shows again with great certainty after dinner ;
but discretion becomes paramount and almost
ubiquitous when the hounds run, being called on
indeed to act for us in every field. Sometimes,
particularly when countries are blind early in
November, we abandon ourselves so entirely to
its guidance as little by little to lose all our self-
1-28
DISCRETION 129
reliance, till at last we feel comfortable nowhere
but in the high road; and most of us, I dare say,
can recall occasions on which we have been so
utterly discomfited by an early disappointment
(in plain English a fence we were afraid to jump)
as to give in without an effort, although the
slightest dash of valour at the right moment
would have carried us triumphantly out of
defeat.
Never mind. Like a French friend of mine,
who expresses his disinclination to our chasse
au renard by protesting, "Monsieur, je ne
cherclie pas mes emotions a me casser le cou"
when we are avowedly in pursuit of pleasure we
ought to take it exactly as suits us best. There
are two ends of the string in every run with
hounds. Wisdom pervades each of these, but
eschews the various gradations between. In
front rides valour with discretion ; in rear, dis-
cretion without valour ; and in the middle a
tumultuous throng, amongst whom neither
quality is to be recognised. With too little of
the one to fly, not enough of the other to creep,
they waver at the fences, hurry at the gaps, get
in each other's way at the gates, and altogether
make exceedingly slow progress compared to
their efforts and their excitement.
Yalour without discretion, I had almost for-
gotten to observe, was down and under his horse
at the first difficulty.
9
130 RIDING RECOLLECTIONS
We will let the apex of the pyramid alone for
the present, taking the safest and broadest end
of the hunt first.
If, then, you have achieved so bad a start that
it is impossible to make up your lee-way, or if
you are on a hack with neither power or inten-
tion to ride in the front rank, be sure you
cannot take matters too coolly should you wish
to command the line of chase and see as much
as possible of the fun.
I am supposing the hounds have found a good
fox that knows more than one parish, and are
running him with a holding scent. However
favourable your start, and fate is sure to arrange
a good one for a man too badly mounted to avail
himself of it, let nothing induce you to keep
near the pack. At a mile off you can survey
and anticipate their general direction, at a
quarter that distance you must ride every turn.
Do not be disordered by the brilliancy of the
pace should their fox go straight up wind. If
he does not sink it within five minutes he means
reaching a drain, and another five will bring the
" who -whoop !" that marks him to ground.
This is an unfailing deduction, but happily the
most discreet of us are apt to forget it. Time
after time we are so fooled by the excitement of
our gallop that even experience does not make
us wise, and we enjoy the scurry, exclaiming,
"What a pity! " when it is over, as if we had
DISCEETION 131
never been out hunting before. It would be
useless to distress your hack for so short a spin,
rather keep wide of the line, if possible, on high
ground, and calculate by the wind, the coverts,
and the general aspect of the country, where a
fox is most likely to make his point.
I have known good runs in the Shires seen
fairly, from end to end, by a lady in a
wagonette.
When business really begins, men are apt to
express in various ways their intention of taking
part. Some use their eyes, some their heels,
and some their flasks. Do you trust your
brains, they will stand you in better stead than
spurs, or spectacles, or even brandy diluted with
curaoa. Keep your attention fixed on the
chase, watch the pack as long as you can, and
when those white specks have vanished into
space, depend on your ow r n skill in woodcraft
and knowledge of country to bring you up with
them again.
Above all, while they are actually in motion,
distrust the bobbing hats and spots of scarlet
that you mark in a distant cluster behind the
hedge. What are they but the field ? and the
field, if it is really a run, are pretty sure to be
out of it.
The first flight you will find very difficult to
keep in view. At the most it consists of six or
seven horsemen riding fifty or a hundred yards
132 RIDING RECOLLECTIONS
apart, and even its followers become so scattered
and detached that in anything like an undu-
lating country they are completely hidden from
observation. If you do catch a glimpse of them,
how slow they seem to travel ! and yet, when
you nick in presently, heaving flanks, red faces,
and excited voices will tell a very different tale.
Trotting soberly along, then, with ears and
eyes wide open, carefully keeping down wind,
not only because the hounds are sure to bend in
that direction, but also that you can thus hear
before you see them, and take measures accord-
ingly, you will have ridden very few miles before
you are gladdened by the cheerful music of the
pack, or more probably a twang from the horn.
The scent is rarely so good as to admit of
hounds running for thirty or forty minutes with-
out a check ; indeed, on most days they are
likely to be at fault more than once during the
lapse of half an hour, when the huntsman's
science will be required to cast them, and, in
some cases, to assist them in losing their fox.
Now is your time to press on with the still
undefeated hack. If you are wise you will not
leave the lanes to which I give you the credit of
having stuck religiously from the start. At
least, do not think of entering a field unless the
track of an obvious bridle-road leads safely into
the next.
A man who never jumps at all can by no
DISCRETION 133
possibility be " pounded," whereas the easiest
and safest of gaps into an inclosure may mean a
bullfinch with two ditches at the other end.
Perhaps you will find yourself ahead of every
one as the hounds spread, and stoop and dash
forward with a whimper that makes the sweetest
of music in your ears. Perhaps, as they swarm
across the very lane in which you are standing,
discretion may calmly open the gate for valour,
who curses him in his heart, wondering what
business he has to be there at all.
There is jealousy even in the hunting-field,
though we prefer to call it keenness, emulation,
a fancy for riding our own line, and I fear that
with most of us, in spite of the kindly sym-
pathies and joyous expansion of the chase, " ego
et prater ea nihil " is the unit about which our
aspirations chiefly revolve.
" What is the use ? " I once heard a plaintive
voice lamenting behind a blackthorn, while the
hounds were baying over a drain at the finish of
a clipping thirty minutes on the grass. " I've
spoilt my hat, I've torn my coat, I've lamed my
horse, I've had two falls, I went first, I'll take
my oath, from end to end, and there's that
d d fellow on the coffee-coloured pony gets
here before me after all ! "
There are times, no doubt, when valour must
needs yield the palm to discretion.
Let us see how this last respectable quality
134 HIDING BECOLLECTIONS
serves us at the other and nobler extremity of
the hunt, for it is there, after all, that our
ambition points, and our wishes chiefly tend.
"Are you a hard rider?" asked an inquiring
lady of Mr. Jorrocks.
" The hardest in England," answered that
facetious worthy, adding to himself, "I may say
that, for I never goes off the 'ard road if I can
help it."
Now instead of following so cautious an
example, let us rather cast overboard a super-
fluity of discretion, that would debar us the post
of honour we are fain to occupy, retaining only
such a leavening of its virtue as will steer us
safely between the two extremes. While the
hounds are racing before us, with a good scent,
in an open country, let our gallant hunter be
freely urged by valour to the front, while at the
same time, discretion holds him hard by the
head, lest a too inconsiderate daring should
endanger his rider's neck.
If a man has the luck to be on a good timber-
jumper, now is the time to take advantage freely
of its confidential resources. If not pulled about,
and interfered with, a hunter that understands
his business leaps this kind of fence, so long as
he is fresh, with ease to himself and security to
his rider. He sees exactly what he has to do,
and need not rise an inch higher, nor fling him-
self an inch farther than is absolutely necessary,
DISCRETION 135
whereas a hedge induces him to make such
exertions as may cover the uncertainty it con-
ceals. But, on the other hand, the binder will
usually bear tampering with, which the bar will
not, therefore if your own courage and your
horse's skill tempt you to negotiate rails, stiles,
or even a gate and this last is very good form
sound discretion warns you to select the first
ten or fifteen minutes of a run for such exhi-
bitions, but to avoid them religiously when the
deep ground and the pace have begun to tell.
Assheton Smith himself, though he scouted
the idea of ever turning from anything, had in
so far the instinct of self-preservation, that when
he thought his horse likely to fall over such an
obstacle, he put him at it somewhat a- slant, so
that the animal should get at least one foreleg
clear, and tumble on to its side, when this
accomplished rider was pretty sure to rise
unhurt with the reins in his hand.
Now this diagonal style of jumping, judiciously
practised, is not without its advantages at less
dangerous fences than the uncompromising bit
of timber that turns us over. It necessarily
increases the width of a bank, affording the
horse more room for foothold, as it decreases the
height and strength of the growers, by taking
them the way they lie, and may, on occasion,
save a good hunter from a broken back, the
penalty for dropping both hind legs simul-
136 BIDING RECOLLECTIONS
taneously and perpendicularly into some steep
cut ditch he has failed to cover in his stride.
Discretion, you observe, should accompany
the hardest riders, and is not to be laid aside
even in the confusion and excitement of a fall.
This must prove a frequent casualty with
every man, however well mounted, if the hounds
show sport and he means to be with them while
they run. It seems a paradox, but the oftener
you are down, the less likely you are to be hurt.
Practice soon teaches you to preserve presence
of mind, or, as I may be allowed to call it, dis-
cretion, and when you know exactly where your
horse is, you can get away from him before he
crushes you with the weight of his body. A
foot or a hand thrust out at the happy moment,
is enough to "fend you off," and your own
person seldom comes to the ground with such
force as to do you any harm, if there is plenty of
dirt. In the absence of that essential to sport,
hunters are not distressed, and therefore do not
often fall.
If, however, you have undertaken to temper
the rashness of a young one with your own dis-
cretion, you must expect occasional reverses ;
but even thus, there are many chances in your
favour, not the least of which is your pupil's
elasticity. Lithe and agile, he will make such
gallant efforts to save himself as usually obviate
the worst consequences of his mistake. The
DISCRETION 137
worn-out, the under-bred, or the distressed horse
comes down like a lump of lead, and neither
valour nor discretion are much help to us
then.
From the pace at which hounds cross a
country, there is unfortunately no time to
practise that most discreet manoeuvre called
"leading over," when the fence is of so formid-
able a nature as to threaten certain discomfiture,
yet I have seen a few tall, powerful, active men,
spring off and on their horses with such rapidity
as to perform this feat successfully in all the
hurry of a burst. The late Colonel Wyndham,
who, when he commanded the Greys, in which
regiment he served at Waterloo, was said by
George the Fourth to be the handsomest man in
the army, possessed with a giant's stature the
pliant agility of a harlequin. A finer rider never
got into a saddle. Weighing nineteen stone, I
have seen him in a burst across Leicestershire,
go for twenty minutes with the best of the light-
weights, occasionally relieving his horse by
throwing himself off, leaping a fence alongside
of it, and vaulting on again, without checking
the animal sufficiently to break its stride.
The lamented Lord Mayo too, whose tall
stalwart frame was in keeping with those intel-
lectual powers that India still recalls in melan-
choly pride, was accustomed, on occasion, thus
to surmount an obstacle, no less successfully
138 BIDING RECOLLECTIONS
among the bullfinches of Northamptonshire than
the banks and ditches of Kildare. Perhaps the
best rider of his family, and it is a bold assertion,
for when five or six of the brothers are out hunt-
ing, there will always be that number of tall
heavy men, answering to the name of Bourke in
the same field with the hounds, Lord Mayo, or
rather Lord Naas (for the best of his sporting