rve, but it is heartless to do so, as we have all, I believe,
felt, more or less, what Jorrocks would term, "kivered all over with the
creeps," at some period or other of our lives. Bad horses and bad falls
are apt to ruin the strongest nerve, and there must be a cause to
produce an effect. For instance, I never feared a thunderstorm until our
house was struck by lightning; but now, when a storm comes, I feel like
the Colonel to whom a Major said on the field of Prestonpans: "You
shiver, Colonel, you are afraid." "I _am_ afraid, Sir," replied the
Colonel, "and if you were as much afraid as I am, you would _run away_!"
It may, however, be consoling to ladies who are battling against loss of
nerve, to hear that I have known brilliant horsemen lose their nerve so
utterly that they were unable to take their horses out of a walk. With
quiet practice their good nerve returned again, and they have ridden as
well as ever. Nerve in riding is recoverable by practice on a very
confidential horse. Some men give their wives or daughters horses which
are unsuitable for them, and which they are unable to manage. Is it any
wonder that such ladies have their nerve entirely shattered in their
efforts to control half-broken, violent brutes of horses? It is
customary to blame ladies who are unable to control their horses in the
hunting field; but the men who supply them with such animals are, in
many cases, the more deserving of censure. There are men, not many, I
hope, who consider it unnecessary for their womenkind to learn to ride
before they hunt; but no one has a right to thus endanger the lives of
others. Such ladies possess plenty of pluck, but not the necessary
knowledge to guide their valour to act in safety. A Master of hounds
told me that his nerve was so bad that he positively prayed for frost!
At the end of one season he gave up the hounds; but he is again hunting
them, so his nerve must have become strong. Mr. Scarth Dixon, writing on
this subject, says: "It is a curious quality, that of nerve. A man's
nerve, by which I mean his riding nerve, will go from him in a day; it
will sometimes, but not frequently, come back to him as suddenly as it
departed. Everyone who has hunted for any length of time and kept his
eyes open must be able to call to mind many a man who has commenced his
hunting career with apparent enthusiasm, who has gone, like the
proverbial 'blazes,' for two or three seasons, taking croppers as all in
a day's work