he
ground together; the pony yelling, snorting, and fighting with his fore
feet, the men clinging on like the Lapithae and the Centaurs, and how
escaping crushed ribs or broken legs it is impossible to imagine. On one
occasion a fine brown stallion dashed away, with two plucky fellows
hanging on to his mane: rearing, plunging, fighting with his fore feet,
away he bounded down a declivity among the huge rocks, amid the
encouraging cheers of the spectators: for a moment the contest was
doubtful, so tough were the sinews, and so determined the grip of Davy,
the champion; but the steep bank of the brook, down which the brown
stallion recklessly plunged, was too much for human efforts (in a moment
they all went together into the brook), but the pony, up first, leaped
the opposite bank and galloped away, whinnying in short-lived triumph.

After a series of such contests, well worth the study of artists not
content with pale copies from marbles or casts, the difficulty of
haltering these snorting steeds--equal in spirit and probably in size to
those which drew the car of Boadicea--was diminished by all those
uncaught being driven back to the pound; and there, not without furious
battles, one by one enslaved.

Yet even when haltered, the conquest was by no means concluded. Some
refused to stir, others started off at such a pace as speedily brought
the holder of the halter on his nose. One respectable old gentleman, in
gray stockings and knee-breeches, lost his animal in much less time than
it took him to extract the sixpence from his knotted purse.

Yet in all these fights there was little display of vice; it was pure
fright on the part of the ponies that made them struggle so. A few
days' confinement in a shed, a few carrots, with a little salt, and
gentle treatment, reduces the wildest of the three-year-olds to
docility. When older they are more difficult to manage. It was a pretty
sight to view them led away, splashing through the brook--conquered, but
not yet subdued.

In the course of the evening a little chestnut stallion, twelve hands,
or four feet in height, jumped, at a standing jump, over the bars out of
a pound upward of five feet from the ground, only just touching the top
rail with his hind feet.

We had hoped to have a day's wild stag hunting, but the hounds were out
on the other side of the country. However, we had a few runs with a
scratch pack of harriers after stout moorland hares. The dandy school,
who