Note 20 — PART I.

One can scarcely repress a smile on hearing cross-country misfortunes related, as they frequently are, in pretty nearly the following terms:—“I found my horse going sluggishly at his fences; and one place looking rather biggish, I shook him up with the bit, and put both heels into him to rouse him, but somehow or other the brute took off too soon, caught his fore feet, I suppose, against something, and came such a cropper on the other side!” or, “The beast kept going at such a bat at his fences that I brought him to book with my hands down, and with a good pull steadied him; but the brute with his awkwardness missed his footing on landing, dropped his hind legs into the brook somehow, and fell back on me, giving me a regular sousing!”