acquainted with the fact of the dark-eyed Myrrha having run off from Corfu with a young rifleman, before I had been victimized. Would that I could have thrown a veil over the past! but as a faithful recorder of my early faults and failings, I have concealed no portion of them, trusting that a more pleasing task may devolve upon me during the progress of my adventures. After two years in Canada, and one in Nova Scotia, I returned to England to rejoin my regiment. Ascertaining that the Mostyns were in Wales, on a visit to some relatives, I immediately proceeded to Atherley Manor, where I was most affectionately greeted by my kith and kin, and the friends of my youth. The temporary absence of the Ramsays saved me a severe pang. THE DEATH OF THE HUNTER'S DAUGHTER. I saw her at the Prestwold ball, Fairest where all were fair; of all I saw her at the covert side With gentlest hand her courser rein, As if that courser felt a pride That beauty's hand was on his main ! I saw her in the noble chase Do what her sire alone had done; And in her gallantry and grace Wished "Douglas' daughter were his son!" I've seen her in the peasant's cot, Cheering the want or woe within ; And viewing her, I half forgot The world holds suffering, death, or sin. A year ago her beauteous brow In joy the bridal chaplet wore; With her young bud-no more! "No more"? They surely deeply err Who thus bound life with sad "no more." She died but ONE hath died for her; Yet sorrow dims a thousand eyes; And mute now hangs the hunter's horn; Through the gloomy halls of Quorn. Leicestershire, March 7th, 1853. OLD GREY. 270 "WINTER LEAVES." BY GREYBEARD. SPECULATING FOR THE FALL. Farmer Bull is a bold man, as his name implies; and has warranted his young horse sound. All question as to his progenitors is let alone. "What blood do you prefer?" being in substance, if not in words, the usual answer to a purchaser's enquiries as to pedigree. The farmer's warranty, however, appears to stand good; and the grey shows no symptoms of anything wrong, but enjoys his four feeds of good old oats, his regular stable hours, and all the luxuries of a gentleman's establishment, as if he much approved of the change. Indeed, the daily improvement in his appearance manifestly demonstrates that he "likes his place." 66 66 nerve. To be sure, Our friend, Mr. Hotspur, however, is not the man to keep horses' only to look at ;" and after the young one has had his physic, (for who ever yet bought a horse without giving him a dose of physic)? the real business of life begins to call upon his energies and occupy his time. All his education, in fact, has now to commence. the dumb-jockey, the bending reins, and the A B C of his colthood, are done with; but he has still to be what is technically termed "made,” and, with some horses, a very tedious and alarming process this said making" proves to be. "So many men, so many minds," is an old and comprehensive adage; and various indeed are the methods adopted by horse-masters to initiate their scholars in the art of crossing a country. In Ireland, the long rein is a favourite mode of tuition; and certainly the horse has a far better chance of learning to jump coolly and carefully with no one on his back, than when hauled and hustled by the professional rough-rider, whose pluck is generally far superior to his The following is the plan pursued in many parts of the sister isle; and we believe with general success. The breaker walks behind the colt, with a long pair of driving-reins and a coachwhip, by which means, he forces his pupil over the lesson with the smallest possible risk to his instructor; and pulls him up on the far side of his fence for reproof or encouragement, as his progress deserves. There is one serious drawback to this method, in its teaching horses to acquire a habit of stopping dead-short after jumping; in which case, the sportsman, if a loose rider, is very apt to go on by himself, describing a parabola through the air, and only checked by an enforced contact with his mother earth. Certain it is, however, that Irish horses are invariably good fencers; and this can only be accounted for by the amount of practice they get at home. In many of those wild districts, though abounding in fences, there are (what an awful consideration!) no gates; and the foals, from their earliest youth being accustomed to follow their dams in search of pasture over every kind of obstacle, acquire a knack in jumping, which, when combined with speed and endurance, makes very valuable and superior hunters. The English horse has not these advantages; although from better care and keep he grows into a finer animal; and we must not consequently expect the same experience or safety to attend his early performances in the hunting field, unless we ourselves take pains to teach him that which he cannot in fairness be expected to know. "Let him learn his business with the hounds; that's the school!" say the generality of gentlemen who go out hunting, just as they repeat fifty other conventional maxims, merely because they hear them enunciated by one another; one of their favourite axioms being to the effect, that if a horse can gallop, he is sure to be able to jump; for the truth of which I will appeal to any man who has ever purchased a race-horse, and ridden him his debut in the field. It is certainly true enough, that some horses-and the presumption is that such, from their great activity, are likewise fast-may be called natural jumpers, and require scarcely any practice to become hunters; but even these gifted animals, scarce as they are, though they perform so well the first day, will perform even better on the next; unless, indeed, some untoward fall, consequent upon their assumed dexterity, shall have destroyed their confidence in themselves, and brought them back to an equality with their less docile compeers. How is it, that if all horses are pretty much on a par as to jumping, you sir, are not to be turned by timber on the bay, and will face a mill-dam on the brown; whilst on the black, the grey, and the chesnut, you will go miles for a bridge, or make the circuit of a fifty-acre field to find a hand-gate; those animals being pleasantest at what you call a fair hunting fence, namely, a modest hedge, with all the layers the right way, and no ditch? My own impression is, that horses differ in their jumping powers nearly as much as men; and that, like the biped, they are capable of being taught this exercise-to them a species of gymnastics-just as you may teach a poodle to jump over a tobacco-pipe; always supposing they have good hocks and powerful quarters; without which essentials, to attempt to make any horse a hunter is but labour in vain. When the power is there, the next requisite is the will, and that little monosyllable makes all the difference between the magnificent fencer you look forward with pleasure to riding, from Flyaway Gorse, and the sticky brute you send on in disgust when you think it necessary to hunt at Blunderbury Wood. To show the distance a willing horse can cover, I may mention an instance which occurred, to my own knowledge, within the last three years, in Northamptonshire; when one of the best and hardest riders, with the Pytchley hounds, charging what is termed in that country "a bottom," got over, probably much to his own astonishment, a positive ravine that would have swallowed a house; the distance, afterwards measured, from foot-mark to foot-mark, being nine-and-twenty feet; the fence, which was on the taking off side, a considerable height, and the depth of the gulf, which yawned to receive him, positively awful. Now that horse went at his fence with a will; he had always been well ridden, and shared his rider's enthusiasm and determination; so when the difficulty he was approaching loomed larger and larger as he got nearer, instead of retaining his powers, trying to refuse when too late, and sliding helplessly into a ready-made grave, he determined to exert himself to the utmost, and his pluck carried him triumphantly over. This was the result of confidence; and that confidence it should be our study to impart to the young horse in his tuition as a hunter. We must walk before we run; we must creep before we fly; and the equine tyro must learn to do his small fences well and cleverly before he attempts the larger ones; and even those small fences he should be trained to accomplish first at a walk, increasing the pace with the proficiency of the scholar, till he swings over them fairly and freely in his stride. There is no such criterion of a horse having been badly ridden, as to find him inclined to go forty miles an hour down to his fence only to stop and jump it standing when he gets there; and this ungainly practice, inconvenient as it is, not to say dangerous, when hounds are running fast, and fences are stiff and wide, is but the effect of a bad education; the animal having been hustled by his instructor at large fences which he was afraid to jump, from not having acquired confidence and dexterity over small ones. My own idea is, that the Irish plan may be successfully followed in this country. I should recommend the owner, if fond of horses and all belonging to those noble animals (and if he is not so, he had better buy his hunters ready made, or give the thing up altogether)—I should recommend the owner to supply himself with a Cavesson rein, the longer the better, and leading the young one in person, to desire his groom to follow with a whip, only to be made use of by "master's' express orders. Let him then lead his charge carefully over small and easy fences, selecting those which are rather blind than otherwise, and giving the animal a good length of rope, and plenty of time to look and learn. A pocket full of oats to reward each successful effort will make the horse anxious to follow, and will, besides, help to attach him to his future rider; nor should the whip be used, except on occasions of gross idleness or ill-temper. Let it never be forgotten, that with beasts, as men, the lesson imparted by kindness is far more readily learnt, and distinctly remembered, than that which is forcibly instilled into a pupil cowed by severity and confused by fear. Some men are sufficiently fine horsemen, and blessed with such nerves, as to be capable of instructing young horses when on their backs, without interfering with their heads, or otherwise withdrawing the attention of the animal from the immediate business in hand; but such riders are indeed uncommon; and therefore it is that I conceive the leading system to be so judicious a method, the beast being left entirely to his own resources, whilst the man's courage and patience run no chance of being over-taxed and failing at the critical moment. How often have I been disgusted to see some thick-headed, hard-fisted ruffian, in all probability primed with liquor for the occasion, deluding his employer, and flattering himself into the idea that he is "making" a high-couraged, generous young horse into a hunter! Look at him, with his heavy hands sawing away at the sensitive mouth; his cutting whip, and sharp-rowelled spurs, ready to inflict punishment, not only unnecessary, but injurious; and his stirrups shortened till flexibility of seat, all "give and take" motion, the very first essential in horsemanship, is an impossibility. Then watch him ride at the fence, which, forsooth, he is to teach his pupil to accomplish. A dozen horses have probably been over it before him, and the young one, if he has any mettle, is half mad with eagerness to get at his work, and stride away with those companions, whom he feels proudly conscious he is quite capable of emulating. The quadruped would do it well enough if the biped would let him alone; but the latter funks in proportion to the courage of the former, and after wavering as to where he means to have it, finally goes with a rush that effectually prevents either of the ill-assorted pair from seeing what they are about. The young horse, if he has power and spring, lands, in all probability, far beyond the difficulty, having previously taken off several feet before he should, but has no more idea of what he has been jumping, or how he has accomplished it, than if he was in his own stable; whilst his tormentor, having done his best to throw him down, congratulates himself, not on his good fortune in escaping a well-merited fall, but upon his fine nerve and daring horsemanship. Such are the generality of rough-riders; and gentlemen would do far better in instructing their own horses, than in confiding them to such hands! If a man has confidence in his own skill, and more particularly in his own nerve, he may make his horses very handy by riding them himself over small cramped places, when not excited by hounds or company; and many who would shrink from the trouble of using the long-rein will not object to a little quiet "larking" upon a new purchase. This is all very well, to give horses a certain amount of confidence and dexterity, and after such practice they may cut a very creditable figure in the field; but a horse to be really a hunter must be a timberjumper, and when we consider how entirely this qualification is a mere matter of practice, and how advantageous the possession of it is in a quick thing, we must own it is surprising that so little pains should be taken by the generality of sportsmen to ensure proficiency in so useful an accomplishment. The fact that a horse can jump a gate, or a high hog-backed stile without a mistake, will not make him, if an inferior animal, one whit a better hunter at the end of fifteen minutes, best pace; but should the gate or the stile have to be negotiated at the commencement of such a burst, every man who rides forward, and knows the pull of a start, will acknowledge the infinite advantage this power of timber-jumping gives the veriest brute in getting clear of a crowd and obtaining room to cut out his own work. Should the horse be stout and fast as well, those who have declined following him in this instance will probably have no opportunity of doing anything but follow him during the rest of the run. Nothing but practice will make a horse a superior timber-jumper. It is a description of leaping which more than any other requires coolness and confidence, for it must be done with energy, but without hurry; and to obtain the requisite amount of practice, I conceive a leaping-bar to be absolutely necessary. No man, I firmly believe, however iron may be his nerves, can ride a raw horse at high strong timber with sufficient nonchalance to leave him entirely to himself, and to himself he must be left if he is to learn properly how it should be done; and even should an individual be found of necessary courage, the number of falls he would receive-and falls over timber be it understood are no trifling purls-in trying to make a dozen horses, would rid the world of such a hero long before he had completed the education of the eleventh. Therefore it is, I conceive, that leading a horse over the leaping-bar is the very best method of ensuring his becoming a fine timber-jumper. In this assertion I am borne out by great authorities. Lord Jersey's famous Shuttlecock, immortalized in the Billesden Coplow poem, was tumbled over the bar day after day, till he became what he eventually was, the best hunter in Leicestershire. |