The Family Library of Poetry and Song

Through thick and thin, both over bank and bush, | Hunting is the noblest exercise,
In hope her to attain by hook or crook.

Faërie Queene, Book iii. Cant. i.

SPENSER.

The intent and not the deed

Is in our power; and therefore who dares greatly The memory, good horsemanship,
Does greatly.

Barbarossa.

Search, sharpness, courage and defence,
And chaseth all ill habits hence.
Masques.

J. BROWN.

Out of this nettle, danger, we pluck this flower,

safety.

King Henry IV. Part 1. Act ii. Sc. 3.

SHAKESPEARE.

"You fool! I tell you no one means you harm." 'So much the better," Juan said, "for them." Don Juan.

BYRON.

HORSEMANSHIP.

I saw young Harry, with his beaver on,
His cuisses on his thighs, gallantly armed,
Rise from the ground like feathered Mercury,
And vaulted with such ease into his seat,
As if an angel dropped down from the clouds,
To turn and wind a fiery Pegasús,
And witch the world with noble horsemanship.

King Henry IV., Part I. Act iv. Sc. 1.

SHAKESPEARE.

Hudibras.

Stand, Bayard, stand!" The steed obeyed,
With arching neck and bended head,
And glancing eye, and quivering ear,
As if he loved his lord to hear.

No foot Fitz-James in stirrup staid,
No grasp upon the saddle laid,
But wreathed his left hand in the mane,
And lightly bounded from the plain,
Turned on the horse his armèd heel,
And stirred his courage with the steel.
Bounded the fiery steed in air,
The rider sate erect and fair,
Then, like a bolt from steel cross-bow
Forth launched, along the plain they go.

The Lady of the Lake, Cant. v.

After many strains and heaves,
He got up to the saddle eaves,
From whence he vaulted into th' seat
With so much vigor, strength, and heat,
That he had almost tumbled over
With his own weight, but did recover,
By laying hold of tail and mane,
Which oft he used instead of rein.

SCOTT.

DR. S. BUTLER,

HUNTING.

Better to hunt in fields for health unbought,
Than fee the doctor for a nauseous draught.
The wise for cure on exercise depend;
God never made his work for man to mend.
Cymon and Iphigenia.

Makes men laborious, active, wise,
Brings health, and doth the spirits delight,
It helps the hearing and the sight;
It teacheth arts that never slip

DRYDEN.

BEN JONSON.