ged in the business of the day, and have no
time to indulge in flirtations. Certainly no sane man would choose a
meet or covert side, where he is surrounded by a crowd of people, to do
his love-making. If the usual discretion is observed in the choice of a
companion for a young lady going to and returning from a hunt, she would
have far less opportunity for "frivol," than in any ordinary ball room
or theatre. We need only watch hunting men and women passing through a
crowded gateway, to see that each one goes in turn, and that there is
very little consideration for sex.

FALLS.

Although the subject of falling is not a pleasant one to discuss, still
we cannot ignore it, for even the best horsewoman occasionally gets hurt
by her horse falling with her. Accidents sometimes occur over the most
trivial obstacles, and when least expected; and are not confined to
jumping, for some of the worst falls have happened on the flat. I
remember Captain King-King breaking three ribs and a collar-bone--a
pretty good dose in one gulp--by his mount coming down with him on the
flat when hunting in Leicestershire. The late Whyte Melville met his
death by a similar accident; and poor Archbishop Wilberforce was killed
while quietly hacking, by his horse putting his foot in a hole and
throwing him on his head. Unfortunately, we are unable to learn the art
of falling correctly, because we have only one neck, and, if we break
that, our experiments must abruptly cease. We may, however, minimise the
danger of its fracture by leaning well back at our fences, and by
ducking our chins into our chests when we feel ourselves coming the
inevitable cropper. The worst kind of fall is when a horse breasts a
stiff fence and either turns a complete somersault, or falls violently
on to his head. In the former case, the accident generally means severe
internal injuries, to say the least of it; in the latter, a broken
collar-bone or concussion of the brain. Such bad accidents are happily
rare; for, if a horse can jump, he will certainly do his best to clear
an obstacle with his fore legs, and if he catches his hind ones and
comes down, our chances of either being killed, or crippled for life,
are far smaller. In Leicestershire I once saw a stranger send his mount
at a posts and rails fence about five feet high, which the animal
breasted and went over with a sickening fall; but I could not help
thinking that the man must have been either riding a hireling, o