Excerpt from Hunting Recollections, Vol. 2 Who amongst us does not know the trials attend ing the beginning of a fresh season. The first time you ride after months of rest is a species of torture unknown to the general public. As a rule, the boots which were so comfortable at the end of the season have been put in thorough repair. They are so hard and stiff you can scarcely draw them on, and when you endeavour to walk downstairs, you feel like a cat in walnut shells. The day is in all probability broiling hot. You cannot even think of your usual attire except with abject horror, and you array yourself (i now have especially women in my mind) in kind of nondescript garments, starting with a straw hat with an elastic which has received no attention during the interregnum and looks all right but is useless. You have forgotten how to arrange your tie with that exactitude for which you were famed, having taken twice your usual time to dress you are ready to start - on a mountain of flesh, something like a badly drawn cow. How different to the animal when you dis mounted after the last day of the season - all spring and muscle, treading as though going on air - a trifle full. Perhaps. The mountain moves off with shoes which have only recently been put on, and you know at once your horse feels very much the same as yourself in well repaired boots. The horse itself is a mixture of sloth and Spirits - very unpleasant to the rider, and add to this the fact the flies are biting sharp (which gives one hope of much needed rain) the discomfort of that first ride is complete. Most likely your stable department, in the absence of any particular amount of work, have spent their leisure moments in polishing your saddle, which gives you the feeling of sitting on ice, and when the turn for spirits seizes your animal, how you wish the stable department had refrained from spending their extra time over the saddle. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.