Will  Headman's  prognostications  became  facts  on
the  following  morning,  when  three  dead  horses  were
brought  to  the  kennel,  victims  to  the  ignorance  and
merciless  conduct  of  their  riders  on  the  previous
day. Accidents,  we  know,  will  befall  the  best  horse-
men and  hunters,  and  we  know  also  that  horses
will  do  their  utmost  to  live  with  hounds  as  long  as
they  are  able  to  do  so ;  but  to  whip  and  spur  a
beaten  horse  to  death  is  a  decided  act  of  cruelty,
which  no  man  possessing  a  particle  of  pity  would
perpetrate. The  majority  of  mankind,  we  are  obliged
to  confess — and,  we  are  grieved  to  add,  the  majority
of  womankind  also — regard  horses  more  in  the  light
of  steam-engines  than  animals  composed  of  flesh
and  blood,  heart  and  lungs,  like  ourselves. We  have
known  ladies — many  very  kind,  affectionate,  com-
passionate beings  in  social  life;  philanthropic,  saint-
like in  their  intercourse  with  the  fallen,  or  miserable,
or  poor,  or  destitute — Sisters  of  Mercy,  in  fine — but
Proserpinish  in  regard  to  unfortunate  horses  when
linked  to  their  carriage. Why  is  it  ?  How  is  it  that
such  inconsistencies  are  daily,  hourly  seen  in  the


SCIENCE    OF    FOXHUNTING. 343

conduct  of  those,  who,  save  for  these  glaring  cruel-
ties, might  justly  claim  the  title  of  ministering
angels  ?  Must  we  assign  it  to  ignorance  or  in-
difference ?  Charity  would  suggest  the  first  as  a
palliative  excuse. We  are  loth  to  attribute  it  to
the  latter. It  has  been  said,  ^^  Where  ignorance  is
bliss,  ^tis  folly  to  be  wise  3"  but  we  say,  when  the
Bible  and  the  laws  of  our  country  punish  cruelty  to
all  animals  with  severity,  the  most  ignorant  can
scarcely  be  unacquainted  with  the  divine,  as  well  as
human,  injunction,  "  to  be  merciful  to  their  beasts.^*
No  excuse  can  be  made  for  ^'  riding  a  willing  horse
to  death.''

Will  Headman's  next  appearance  in  public  was
in  a  district  wholly  unlike  that  from  which  he  ob-
tained the  hunting  run  above  recorded. 