HUNTING 
 
 AND PRACTICAL HINTS 
 
 FOR 
 
 HUNTING MEN 
 
 George /^ Underhill 
 
RECENTLY PUBLISHED. 
 
 BRITISH SEA BIRDS. By Charles Dixon. 
 Author of "The Migration of Birds," etc. 
 etc. With Eight Illustrations by Charles 
 Whymper. Square demy 8vo, cloth, gilt top, 
 IDS. 6d. 
 
HUNTING 
 
THE FOLLOWING PAGES 
 
 ARB 
 
 BeMcateD 
 
 TO 
 
 G. S. LOWE, Esq., 
 
 The Editor of ' The Sporting Life * 
 
 AS A TOKEN OF GRATITUDE FOR HIS KIND ADVICE WHILE 
 THEY WERE BEING WRITTEN, AND FOR HIS 
 ASSISTANCE IN CORRECTING THE PROOF- 
 SHEETS FOR THE PRESS 
 BY 
 
 THE AUTHOR 
 
HUNTING 
 
 AND 
 
 PRACTICAL HINTS FOR HUNTING MEN 
 
 BY 
 
 GEORGE F. UNDERHILL 
 
 AUTHOR. OF "in AT THE DEATH," '* IN AND OUT OK THE PIGSKIN, 
 " THE HELTER-SKELTER HOUNDS," ETC., ETC. 
 
 LONDON 
 BLISS, SANDS & CO. 
 
 12 BURLEIGH STREET, STRAND, W.C. 
 
 MDCCCXCVII 
 
PEEFACE 
 
 To a small book, wliicli aims at being essentially 
 practical, a Preface is hardly necessary, and 
 my only object in penning these lines is to 
 thank the Editor of Country Sport for giving 
 me permission to utilize the articles which I 
 wrote for his paper during the past hunting 
 season, 1896-97, under the heading ''In the 
 Pink." 
 
 GEOEGE F. UNDEEHILL. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 PAOB 
 
 Introduction . . . . . .11 
 
 PART I. 
 The Modern Practice and Etiquette of Hunting. 
 I. The Rationale of Hunting . . . .23 
 
 II. FOX-HUNTINO ...... 37 
 
 III. STAQ-HUNTINft 
 
 IV. Hare-Huntino 
 V. Otter-Hunting ...... 73 
 
 PART II. 
 
 The Accessories of Hunting. 
 
 I. The Hunter ...... 81 
 
 II. Stables and Stable Management . . .91 
 
 III. Grooms 120 
 
 IV. Hunting Clothes ..... 126 
 
i'^ 
 
 X CONTENTS 
 
 PART III. 
 
 Practical Hints. 
 
 I. Personal Hints for Hunting Men . , . 137 
 
 II. Hints to Young Breeders .... 149 
 
 III. Hints about Schooling Hunters . . . 164 
 
 IV. Carriage Horses as Hunters, and Hunters as 
 
 Carriage Horses ..... 176 
 
INTEODUCTION 
 
 Let us beg our readers, in our first sentence, to remem- 
 ber that this volume is written for the tyro in the 
 hunting-field. There are many good sportsmen, who 
 cannot afford to hunt more than one day a week, or at 
 the most three days a fortnight, and who for lack of 
 practical information never hunt at all, but devote their 
 energies to some other sport or pastime. Very often 
 these men have not only the time and money, but 
 stables and horses at their disposal, yet dislike to make 
 their maiden appearance in the hunting-field, because 
 they know nothing about hunting. They are afraid of 
 making themselves ridiculous, or of spoiling the sport 
 of their neighbours. There is also a numerous class of 
 men who receive invitations to country houses, where the 
 rule is to hunt by day and to talk about hunting by 
 night. We have often been approached with some such 
 tale as this: "I am going down to stay with the 
 Blanks, and they have offered me a mount. Now I 
 never went out huntiug in my life. Do give me a 
 wrinkle ! " Such a wrinkle it is one of the objects of 
 this volume to supply. 
 
 In the sections which deal with " The Hunter " and 
 with "Stables and Stable Management," we have not 
 
 written for the man who keeps a giant establishment, 
 
 11 
 
12 HUNTING 
 
 and gives three hundred guineas for a hunter, but for 
 the man who keeps his two or three horses, and wishes 
 that both horses and stables should be as near perfec- 
 tion as is compatible with a moderate income. It may 
 appear to some that we have descended to trivial 
 details by giving lists and prices of stabling and groom- 
 ing utensils with hints as to how long they should last, 
 and by stating the proper allowance of hay and corn 
 per diem for a hunter. But it is in regard to these 
 details that a man, when he first begins to hunt, is 
 entirely at the mercy of his groom. Nothing in or 
 about a stable is so trivial as to be beneath the notice 
 of the master. A careless master makes a careless 
 man, and the two together make a dirty untidy stable 
 and ill-conditioned, badly-groomed horses. If these 
 pages help the novice in the slightest degree to learn 
 how to become his own stud-groom, another of our objects 
 will have been attained. 
 
 Our third object is to supply information to the 
 numerous class of people in every country of the globe, 
 who take an interest in the most popular of British 
 sports, to many of whom the rationale of fox-hunting is 
 an enigma, as it is to many of our own cockneys. 
 " You English are all hunting mad," an American said 
 once to us ; but within three months he was as hunting- 
 mad as any Englishman. 
 
 Even in a book, the aim of which is to give practical 
 advice to the tyro, it is necessary to state briefly the 
 history of the sport with which we have to deal. Lord 
 Wilton says, in his " Sports and Pursuits of the English," 
 " about the year 1750 hounds began to be entered 
 solely to fox." But the custom was little practised. 
 In Pye's " Sportsman's Dictionary," 1807 edition, we 
 read : " The fox is taken with greyhounds, terriers, nets, 
 
INTRODUCTION 13 
 
 and gins," and a terrier is defined as "a kind of mongrel 
 greyhound." It would seem that fox-hunting at the 
 beginning of the century was almost exclusively con- 
 fined to the squires, yeomen, and tenant-farmers, and 
 that regular Hunts with regular packs were few and far 
 between. The general custom was, when a fox was 
 discovered to be afoot, to decide to have a fox-hunt, 
 then the squire and the neighbouring farmers brought 
 what dogs they might possess to the meeting-place, 
 which had been agreed upon, and this canine collection of 
 all breeds and sizes constituted the pack of foxhounds 
 for the day. There were no hunt servants, but each 
 man cheered on his own dog. The sport began early 
 in the morning, when the fox was tired after his 
 nocturnal ramblings, otherwise he could never have 
 been caught by such a motley pack. The sportsmen 
 returned home about two o'clock in the afternoon, and 
 the rest of the day was usually devoted to a deep 
 carousal. Eeaders of " Handley Cross " will remember the 
 indignation of the immortal Jorrocks, when he became 
 the master of a pack, hardly superior to the one we 
 have described ; and the first edition of " Handley Cross " 
 was not published till 1843. Besides Jorrocks arrived 
 at Handley Cross by train, so that the system must have 
 prevailed till the commencement of the present reign. 
 Up till within the last twenty years, it was the custom 
 for every member of the Hunt Committee of the 
 Wheatland Hounds to carry a horn and blow it. 
 
 But not only was fox-hunting not pursued in a 
 scientific manner as a sport, but the fox was not regarded 
 as a sacred animal and chartered thief. If no hunt 
 could be organised after the discovery of a fox, a meet- 
 ing of the country yokels was summoned, generally by 
 the ringing of the church bell. They then attempted 
 
14 HUNTING 
 
 to find and kill tlie fox with sticks and stones. It is 
 hardly conceivable that a dog-fox could often have 
 fallen a victim to this method of hunting, though 
 probably a vixen with her unborn or new-born litter of 
 cubs was constantly sacrificed. "We must also remember 
 that the practice of late hunting, i.e. of not hunting the 
 fox till he had had time to recover from the fatigue of 
 his nocturnal wanderings and to digest his food, would 
 have been almost impossible with the horses which our 
 forefathers rode. The thoroughbred hunter was un- 
 known, except in the stables of a few of the nobility, 
 and the squire's saddle-horse was a heavy animal, whose 
 pace and galloping powers were limited in the extreme, 
 however great his staying powers may have been. A 
 fresh fox would have raced away from the field in 
 the same way as the modern foxhound would have 
 done. 
 
 Such was the rule as to fox-hunting ; but there were 
 notable exceptions, which ultimately gave birth to the 
 present system. The Berkeley Hounds have the reputa- 
 tion of being the oldest pack in England. They had 
 kennels at Charing Cross when Berkeley Square was a 
 snipe marsh ; but there are hardly any authentic 
 records about them, and we may be sure that they were 
 not entered solely to hunt the fox, but, on the contrary, 
 were more accustomed to hunt hare. According to 
 Sydney, than whom there can be no better authority 
 {vide ' Sydney's Book of the Horse,' 1893), the Brock- 
 lesby Hounds are undoubtedly the oldest pack of fox- 
 hounds in the kingdom. They have been in the 
 Pelham, better known perhaps in hunting circles as the 
 Yarborough, family for over 150 years, and have had a 
 written pedigree for over 120 years. It was from the 
 Brocklesby kennels that Mr Hugo Meynell, commonly 
 
INTRODUCTION 15 
 
 called the father of English fox-hunting, founded and 
 recruited the Quorn, early in the fifties of the last 
 century, and to this day the Brocklesby Hounds are 
 branded with a P. Mr Meynell hunted the Quorn till 
 1795, and under his rule two important customs were 
 introduced. He initiated late hunting, or drawing for 
 the fox, instead of dragging up to his lair, and Mr 
 Child e, known as " the flying Childe," initiated " riding 
 to heunds," much, as we are told, to Meynell's disgust, so 
 that it would seem that previous to Mr Childe's time 
 the field did not follow the line of hounds, but rode 
 from point to point, probably on account of the poor 
 jumping and galloping powers of their horses. 
 
 But Hugo Meynell has been handed down to pos- 
 terity as the father of fox-hunting, chiefly on account 
 of the number of young sportsmen whom he educated 
 to follow his system. From all parts of the country 
 men came to hunt with Meynell, and then went back 
 to try to do as he did. He had reduced fox-hunting 
 and the breeding of hounds to a science. At first it 
 was only the wealthy few who could afford to imitate 
 him, for in those days men hunted their own hounds, 
 and the modern subscription pack was unknown. 
 Certainly in 1770 the famous Tarporley Hunt Club 
 became a fox-hunting club; but it was not till 1796 
 that the " Cheshire County Subscription Hounds " were 
 founded by Sir Peter Warburton on account of some 
 quarrel amongst the members of the Tarporley Hunt 
 Club. Long previous to 1762, however, hunt clubs 
 were in existence, as in that year Boodle's Club was 
 founded as a London eating-house for members of hunt 
 clubs, but it was long before the hunt clubs lost their 
 character for social exclusiveness, or that fox-hunting 
 became the reason of their existence. Indeed they 
 
16 HUNTING . 
 
 seem to have been quite as much political as they were 
 sporting. To give a history of the rise of subscription 
 packs would involve a history of English country 
 society ; but the rapidity of their growth may be seen 
 by the fact that in 1874 there were only twelve non- 
 subscription packs out of 137 packs of foxhounds in 
 England and Scotland. It is worth our while to men- 
 tion these twelve packs : — Belvoir (Duke of Eutland) ; 
 Brocklesby (Earl of Yarborough) ; Badminton (Duke of 
 Beaufort, Marquis of Worcester, M.F.H.); Berkeley (Lord 
 Fitzhardinge) ; Duke of Grafton's ; Earl of Fitzwilliam's ; 
 Earl of Coventry's ; Cottesmore (3rd Earl of Lonsdale) ; 
 Lord Leconfi eld's; Earl of Portsmouth's ; Lord Tredegar's; 
 Sir Watkin William Wynn's. But it may be remarked 
 of the gentlemen who hunted these packs that they 
 not only maintained their own hounds but also bred 
 their tenant farmers. It would be impossible for a 
 man to hunt and maintain his own hounds unless he 
 were a popular landowner. 
 
 If Hugo Meynell and his pupils founded the present 
 system of fox-hunting, it was not till after the defeat of 
 Napoleon at Waterloo that it showed signs of healthy 
 development. Soldiers are always to be found in the 
 van of every branch of sport, so now that our young 
 officers were no longer engaged in pursuing the French, 
 they devoted themselves to pursuing the fox. Con- 
 tinental experience had done much to enlarge their 
 minds, and they were no longer content to stagnate in 
 the old-fashioned grooves. The members of the old 
 hunt clubs might grumble, as no doubt they did, but 
 they had to recognise the truth of the proverb that " the 
 old order changeth," or pay the hunting expenses of 
 their younger relations with those packs which had 
 adopted the new system. Hitherto fox-hunting could 
 
INTEODUCTION 17 
 
 by no means have been looked on as a recognised 
 public institution. It had been confined to " the natives," 
 and the stranger who ventured to join in the sport was 
 regarded with suspicion. The hunting-field was the 
 club of the neighbourhood : a club to which the tenant 
 farmer was as welcome as the Lord-Lieutenant, but 
 still a club ; now every man or woman who could 
 behave decently in the hunting-field was to become 
 eligible for it. 
 
 But the new system could never have been founded 
 or developed if it had not been for the great improve- 
 ment in the English breed of horses. The question 
 is often asked, Did fox-hunting improve the breed of 
 horses, or, did the breed of horses improve fox-hunt- 
 ing ? We have heard no satisfactory answer to this 
 question. Probably it was six of one, and half-a-dozen 
 of the other. The breed of horses was originally 
 improved for racing purposes. The Arab strain had 
 been introduced by Lord Godolphin, through a sire 
 known as " The Godolphin Arabian," with such 
 success that his example had been rapidly imitated. 
 Therefore when the demand arose for hunters which 
 possessed speed as well as endurance, the source of the 
 supply had been in existence for over fifty years, even 
 in Hugo Meynell's early days, with the Quorn. Per- 
 haps the best way of answ^ering the vexed question, is 
 to say that racing introduced the improvement in 
 breeding horses, and hunting encouraged the improve- 
 ment. But, for the present purpose, it is only 
 necessary to point out that the breed had improved. 
 
 By 1850 fox-hunting had become an important 
 factor in the political economy of the country. To 
 hunt meant to encourage horse-breeding, to put money 
 into the pocket of the farmer, by increasing the 
 
 B 
 
18 HUNTING 
 
 market for hay and corn, and to give employment to 
 an army of grooms and stable helpers. Hunting had 
 assumed the character of a business. Farmers, horse- 
 dealers, veterinary surgeons, tailors, saddlers, hotel 
 proprietors, and even railway directors found a profit- 
 able customer in the hunting man. Towns sprang 
 up where there had only been villages, and hunting, 
 described by Burke as " one of the balances of the 
 constitution," now became one of the bulwarks of 
 commerce. 
 
 It may seem extraordinary that the railways, which 
 have done much to destroy shooting and fishing, 
 should have served to increase the popularity of 
 hunting, by diverting wealth from towns into the 
 country. If it had not been for the plutocracy, fox- 
 hunting must have continued to be a rural pastime, 
 instead of becoming a popular sporting science. Take 
 for example, a meet of the Quorn, with its field of 
 between two hundred, three hundred, and often 
 considerably more sportsmen and sportswomen ! 
 Here you see " the pomp and circumstances " 'par 
 excellence of fox-hunting, combined with everything 
 that hunting science has taught us. But it would be 
 almost impossible for such a pack to be maintained by 
 resident landowners. The money to support such estab- 
 lishments must come from the towns. So, if the towns 
 have absorbed much capital from the country during 
 the last fifty years, hunting may lay claim to be one of 
 the important channels through which money flows 
 back from the towns to the country. But it is not 
 our intention to invade the domain of agricultural 
 politics by treating of the politico-economical side of 
 hunting. It is sufficient to have pointed out that 
 hunting, at the beginning of the century, was the 
 
INTRODUCTION 19 
 
 pastime of residents in the country, and that now it 
 is a recognised institution of English life, involving 
 the circulation of capital, and the employment of 
 labour. Thus, the people who rail against hunting, 
 as being the amusement of the wealthy few, must be 
 absolutely blind to the financial utility of the sport. 
 The incontrovertible fact, that hunting has, through 
 successive generations, increased in popularity, amongst 
 all classes of the people, pleads more in its favour 
 than all the books which have ever been written on the 
 subject. 
 
 With these introductory remarks, we will now 
 proceed to the practical part of our work. 
 
PAET I 
 
 The Modern Practice and Etiquette of Hunting 
 
CHAPTEK I. 
 
 THE KATIONALE OF HUNTING. 
 
 Fifty years ago, the question, Why should fox-hunting, 
 or any other form of hunting exist ? would have met 
 with universal ridicule at the expense of the questioner. 
 But, alas ! the old order changeth, and new prophets 
 have arisen, whose sermons are inspired by the teach- 
 ings of our old enemy, "the dog in the manger." 
 This expression is not original on our part, for on 
 Saturday, April 3rd, 1897, at the annual dinner at 
 Windsor, given to the farmers in the Queen's country, 
 Sir George Eussell, who was in the chair, remarked 
 that the antagonists to the sport consisted only of 
 those who were unable to enjoy the sport, which was 
 a polite way of calling the said antagonists so many 
 dogs in the manger. This meeting, we may add, was 
 in favour of sport without a single dissentient, 
 whether the sport consisted in hunting the carted 
 deer, or riding after Mr Garth's foxhounds, and was 
 considered of such importance as to demand attention, 
 and in some cases leading articles, from the London 
 daily papers ; a result which could hardly have been 
 acceptable to the faddists, who, with no knowledge 
 of the subject, decry sport in general and hunting in 
 particular. 
 
 The effect of the disturbance has been to call forth 
 
 23 
 
24 HUNTING 
 
 a self-preservative reaction, necessitated by the sporting 
 affective elements of the human brain, stimulated by 
 the strange and unfamiliar phenomena, nascent from the 
 processes of incipient insanity, in themselves nascent from 
 morbid selfishness. To a certain very limited extent 
 we, as believers in the creed of sport, may be thankful 
 for the activity thus displayed by our antagonists, since 
 a certain amount of difficulty tends to sharpen the edge 
 of desire, and to add to the zest of pursuit. But at 
 the same time we like to fight against logical consistency, 
 and not to write about the relations between higher 
 and lower volition. So much for the faddists, who 
 may be able to understand the philosophy even if they 
 are unable to indulge in the practice of sport. We 
 apologise to our readers for making these allusions, but 
 the temptation to rebuke the enemies of hunting was 
 too strong to be resisted. Let us now base our argu- 
 ments upon the solid foundation of fact, instead of 
 imitating our opponents by painting imaginative 
 pictures upon a canvas stretched over a proble- 
 matical framework. 
 
 In the first place let us consider the direct material 
 advantages which accrue to the farmer and the agricul- 
 tural interest through hunting. Briefly, they may be 
 summarised as follows : (1) a market for horses, and 
 the consequent encouragement of horse-breeding; (2) 
 a market for fodder; (3) the circulation of money by 
 hunting men in the country, a large proportion of 
 which otherwise would be spent abroad. If it were 
 not for hunting, the horse-breeding industry would 
 become practically extinct in this country, and we 
 should lose a large proportion of national wealth. Let 
 us for a moment particularise. Eoughly, there are 150 
 packs of foxhounds in England ; in each pack we may 
 
THE RATIONALE OF HUNTING 25 
 
 assume that on the average, there are 100 horses used 
 exclusively for hunting purposes, that is, 15,000 horses 
 are kept in England for fox-hunting. Take the average 
 life of a horse in the hunting-field at five years, and the 
 average price paid for him £100, we find that £300,000 
 is annually spent in England on horses used for fox- 
 hunting, a large proportion of which sum must go into 
 the pocket of the breeder, i.e. the farmer. Then we 
 must take into consideration the enormous number of 
 horses, which, though not used exclusively for hunting, 
 would not be bred, purchased, and kept if it were not 
 for hunting. We allude to covert hacks, trappers, and 
 the numerous class of horses who do duty both between 
 the shafts and in the hunting-field. It would take the 
 work of a Eoyal Commission receiving reports from 
 every county in England, to arrive at any approximate 
 number of the horses indirectly taking part in hunting. 
 Suffice it to say, that if hunting were abolished, this 
 country would lose its position as the first horse- 
 breeding country in the world, and agricultural depres- 
 sion would be succeeded by the extinction of agriculture. 
 These are people, no doubt, who would not regard this 
 extinction as being of much importance to our national 
 welfare, and would not be sorry to see England a huge 
 workshop, or a large market garden. But England 
 could never be the workshop of the world, on account of 
 the want of raw material, and every costermonger who 
 has been to Co vent Garden market knows that it could 
 never be a market garden, when, as it is, fruit is left to 
 rot on the trees, because it is not worth the price of 
 picking. The importation of foreign meat has done 
 much to militate against profitable cattle-raising, and 
 the price of wheat is so low that the English farmer 
 can hardly grow wheat at a profit. Horse-breeding, 
 
26 HUNTING 
 
 however, is still left to him, encouraged by hunting in 
 many ways. For, not only does the hunting-field 
 provide him with a market for his horses, but in most 
 hunting counties there exists an Entire-Horse Fund for 
 the benefit of farmers over whose land hounds cross, so 
 that a farmer having a brood mare, from which he 
 wishes to breed, may have the services of a stallion 
 gratis, and save the initial cost of a covering fee. 
 Finally, it is no exaggeration to say that, owing to the 
 encouragement given to horse-breeding by hunting, 
 England stands out as the market for horse flesh for 
 the whole world. 
 
 In regard to the second item, namely, the market for 
 fodder supplied by hunting, we will again place figures 
 before the reader. Every one of the 15,000 horses 
 used exclusively for hunting purposes costs in fodder 
 ten shillings a week to keep : therefore, £7500 is spent 
 weekly on hunters' fodder, or £390,000 per annum, 
 out of which sum at least £350,000 goes into the 
 pocket of the farmer, to say nothing of the money 
 spent on fodder for horses not used exclusively for 
 hunting. This is allowing a handsome commission 
 to corn-dealers, corn-factors, et hoc omne genus. Of late 
 years it has become the fashion to do away with this 
 commission as far as possible, for the benefit of the 
 farmers. Lord Lonsdale, than whom the farmers 
 have had few better friends, when he accepted the 
 office as Master of the Quorn, at the end of the season 
 1892-1893, at once devoted his energies to doing every- 
 thing in his power to assist the landowners and 
 farmers. Two sheets weekly of the Melton Moivhray 
 Times and LougKborough Advertiser were filled up 
 with four columns as follows : 
 
THE RATIONALE OF HUNTING 
 
 27 
 
 First Column. 
 
 Second Column. 
 
 Third Column. 
 
 Fourth Column. 
 
 Names and 
 
 Addresses of 
 
 Vendors. 
 
 Description of 
 Provender. 
 
 The 
 Quantity. 
 
 Remarks on 
 Quality. 
 
 These columns were under the personal revision 
 of Lord Lonsdale, whose theory is, that the money of 
 the hunting man should go direct into the pocket of 
 the farmer. Some people doubt the utility of any 
 registration of provender in the hands of farmers, on 
 the ground that many hunting men have no knowledge 
 of the quality of corn and hay, and of the value of it ; 
 but the doubt to our mind seems foolish, as the ignorant 
 hunting man has only to direct his dealer to buy 
 direct from a farmer resident in the country in which 
 he hunts. However, we hope that the chapter in this 
 volume on " Stables and Stable Management," may 
 cure some of this ignorance which certainly is not bliss 
 to the huntinor man. 
 
 Passing now to the circulation of money by hunting 
 men in the country in which they hunt, it is impossible 
 to estimate the amount with any degree of accuracy, 
 but it certainly amounts to more thousands per annum 
 than outsiders think it does hundreds. Some writers 
 assert, and we are inclined to agree with them, that 
 the abolition of hunting would involve the ruin 
 of the rural population of England, already harassed 
 by low prices and general agricultural depression. If 
 there be a single particle of truth in the assertion, 
 that particle of truth is alone a sufficient reason for 
 the existence of fox-hunting, since it proves that fox- 
 huntinf? affords a channel through which the money of 
 
28 HUNTING 
 
 the capitalist reaches the peasant, passing necessarily 
 on its way through the hands of the farmer. Occa- 
 sionally a farmer, forgetting that individual prosperity 
 is the result of collective wealth, will exclaim, " I do 
 not hunt ; and hunting damages my land, and damages 
 me in other ways. Why then should I allow hounds 
 to cross my farm ? " The practical answer is, " Because 
 you receive compensation for all the damage caused 
 to you by hunting."* The crux of the matter,|how- 
 ever, is that the modern farmer cannot afford to hunt, 
 and therefore it is difficult to make him comprehend 
 the advantages which he derives from a sport which he 
 cannot personally enjoy. There are few farmers now 
 who are so keen on preserving foxes as the old South 
 Staffordshire yeoman, who, on Christmas eve, used 
 to place raw meat outside the earths on his land, so 
 that the foxes might enjoy their Christmas dinner 
 without the trouble of working for it. The old order 
 changeth, and the new order thinks it incumbent to 
 get as much as possible out of the hunt. But to hark 
 back to the methods by which the non-hunting farmer 
 is benefited by hunting indirectly. If it were not 
 for hunting, what capital would there be in the 
 country ? The large landowners would not spend their 
 time in a place where they could not enjoy their sport, 
 as has been proved in certain districts in Ireland, 
 where fox-hunting was boycotted. The large country 
 seats would either be closed, or let to tenants between 
 whom and the farmers there could be no sympathy, 
 
 * For to state a case which is of frequent occurrence, suppose 
 a fox raids a poultry-yard, the farmer has only to send in his 
 claim to the Hunt Secretary, or Master of Fox-Hounds, and he 
 will receive a cheque by return of post. 
 
THE RATIONALE OF HUNTING 29 
 
 and the owners of the soil would refuse to sink money 
 in the soil from which they derived no pleasure. 
 Farms would fall into decay, and the capital, without 
 the use of which the small farmer is helpless, would 
 be diverted into foreign channels. Agricultural towns, 
 like Melton Mowbray and Market Harborough, would 
 become pauper- villages, and the tradespeople, who made 
 a profit out of the owners of hunting-boxes, would 
 throng to the towns or the county workhouse. Flourish- 
 ing hotels would become pot-houses, and finally, the 
 small farmer would find himself without a market. 
 The truth is, that fox-hunting must exist, if only for 
 the reason that it is the principal factor in our 
 agricultural economy. We almost feel justified in 
 stating that the abolition of hunting means the 
 abolition of English country life ; for the landed gentry, 
 if they could not enjoy their sport, would go abroad 
 during the winter months, and the money which they 
 now circulate in England, would go into the pockets 
 of foreign nations. Therefore, all classes of people, 
 from peer to peasant, derive a substantial pecuniary 
 advantage from the sport. 
 
 Nor should we forget to mention that bond of social 
 union which unites all classes in the hunting-field. 
 The same bond exists on the race-course, the cricket 
 field, the football ground, and wherever English people 
 are gathered together to enjoy sport, whether as par- 
 ticipators or as spectators, in the same degree as in the 
 hunting-field. But at the present day no institution 
 which tends to tighten the bonds of unity between the 
 different classes in the country should be allowed to be 
 lightly handled by the pessimistic agitator. Therefore, 
 hunting, which materially increases the commercial 
 prosperity of the nation, which binds together the 
 
30 HUNTING 
 
 difierent classes of the people with a bond of social 
 union, and which adds firmness to the national char- 
 acter, must commend itself to any intelligent man who 
 believes that the vitality of a nation lies in its outdoor 
 life, and not within doors. We ourselves are convinced 
 that a country village is more symbolical of national 
 life than a manufacturing town ; but whether our 
 convictions are right or wrong, England can never 
 become one large manufacturing town, or, in other 
 words, the workshop of the world. The lungs of 
 England are situated in the country and not in the 
 town, and hunting, as we trust that we have shown, 
 instils the breath of life into those lungs. Therefore, 
 the result of hunting is healthy both for our national 
 economy and our national life. 
 
 The demand for horses has been a sensational subject 
 for very many years, but at no period has it exceeded 
 that of the present, when the demand is so great 
 that we have to go to Canada, South Africa, and 
 Australia for our supply. Apprehensive of disappoint- 
 ments, our agriculturists at home have in many 
 instances abstained from breeding, and consequently 
 have not paid attention to the numerous observances 
 necessary to promote success. Hunting, or rather 
 hunting-men, have to a large extent come to the rescue, 
 and reserved the national industry by providing 
 breeders with limited incomes with sires ; but we 
 should like to see the extent largely increased, for there 
 is no doubt that the subscriptions of many hunting 
 men are entirely disproportionate to the sport which 
 they enjoy. 
 
 How to force the hunting man to contribute his fair 
 quota towards the sport which he enjoys is a question 
 which becomes more important every season owing to 
 
THE RATIONALE OF HUNTING 31 
 
 the increased facility in railway travelling, which 
 enables a roan to breakfast in Jermyn Street, and turn 
 up at the meet in the shires or the home provinces. 
 There are hundreds of men who hunt from town as the 
 phrase goes. The real interpretation of the phrase 
 is that these men pay flying visits into any country 
 according as their fancy dictates, though they are 
 careful not to give one hunt the benefit of their presence 
 too many times in succession for fear of being asked 
 for a donation. If they are asked, they will unblush- 
 ingly reply that they hunt regularly with another pack, 
 and have only run down for a bye day, and, naturally, 
 it is presumed that they subscribe to this other pack, 
 and accordingly meet with that welcome which the 
 members of one pack always give to the members of 
 another. In other words, they obtain sport under 
 false pretences, and are as much guilty of poaching 
 as the yokel who snares a hare on a moonlight 
 night. 
 
 Unfortunately, these poachers, who wear the outward 
 garb of gentility in the shape of a pink coat, are the 
 very men who arouse the ire of the farmers, and, inno- 
 cently let us hope, act in every way both directly and 
 individually against the welfare of fox-hunting. They 
 ride helter-skelter over the land without any regard to 
 the harm they may do to the occupier. Growing crops 
 are an unknown quantity to them. To break down 
 fences by needlessly attempting to jump them is their 
 pet diversion. To close a gate so that cattle may not 
 stray is beyond their powers of thought. Yet they are 
 the first men to accuse the farmers of taking up an 
 adverse attitude towards fox-hunting. Their complaints 
 in the smoking-room of a London club are as loud as 
 the bellowings of the bull of Bashan, till they dwindle 
 
32 HUNTING 
 
 into asinine liee-aws beneath the question, " How much 
 do you subscribe to hounds ? " 
 
 Now, if fox-hunting is to hold its own as the most 
 popular amusement for English sporsmen, some method 
 will have to be devised by which the hunting man will 
 have to pay for his sport. A man can neither race for 
 nothing, shoot for nothing, nor fish for nothing, but at 
 the present time he may go I'ox-poaching with impunity, 
 and inflict his presence upon good and true sportsmen. 
 Why, then, should we not have hunting licenses ? 
 These licenses could be issued by the Hunt Secretary, 
 for it would be manifestly the last straw on the camel's 
 back to ask the M.F.H. to issue them ; and in the same 
 way as a game license entitles the holder to shoot any- 
 where, so would a hunting license entitle the holder to 
 hunt with any pack he liked. All covert owners, farmers, 
 and occupiers of land should receive their licenses free. 
 In regard to the price of a license, we would suggest £5 
 for a resident inside a hunting country, and £7 for one 
 outside, and the funds collected by the Secretary should 
 go towards defraying the expenses of his own particular 
 hunt. Licenses might also be granted at lesser sums 
 for specific periods for the benefit of visitors, officers on 
 leave, and others who only get a limited time for 
 hunting during the season. 
 
 These licenses ought not to seriously interfere with 
 the subscription list, any more than a game license 
 debars the shooting man from tipping the head keeper, 
 or, if it really were a burden, the subscriber could deduct 
 it from his subscription, for, though I know one gentle- 
 man who hunts in pink three days a week, and invari- 
 ably brings his wife out with him, on a £5 subscription, 
 such cases are happily rare. Still, the standard sub- 
 scription of £20, which in most countries entitles the 
 
THE EATIONALE OF HUNTING 33 
 
 subscriber to don pink, migbt be lowered to £15. In 
 some countries this subscription of £20 is arbitrary. 
 Thus, at a meeting of the members of Mr Fernie's Hounds 
 on the 19th of December 1889, it was resolved that no 
 sum under £20 should be considered a subscription to 
 the hounds, but should be credited to the covert fund, 
 and that the subscription to the wire fund should be 
 £3 per gentleman inside the hunt, and £2 for gentle- 
 men outside. Yet Mr Fernie's Hounds only hunt five 
 days a fortnight. It would be well if members of other 
 hunts were to follow this example, and pass arbitrary 
 resolutions of a similar nature, or the glory of a pink 
 coat would sink into the same insignificance as did that 
 of Mr Soapy Sponge when he arrived at Nonsuch House. 
 Alas that Mr Sponge should have so many prototypes 
 in modern times ! 
 
 But if you impose a tax you must also impose a 
 penalty for the non-payment of the tax, and it would be 
 impossible to impose a penalty without the sanction of 
 the legislature. Here comes the rub. For, supposing 
 an Act of Parliament was passed taxing the hunting 
 man, the Chancellor of the Exchequer would wish to 
 have something to say about its collection and distribu- 
 tion. At all events, he would not entrust these duties 
 to a hunt secretary without stipulating that the hunt 
 secretary's accounts should be officially audited. Now, 
 hunt secretaries are invariably honorary, and would 
 very naturally object to becoming Government officials. 
 Again, who is to undertake the unenviable task of ask- 
 ing a stranger in the field for his license ? Neither 
 the master, the secretary, nor any of the hunt servants 
 could be expected to turn excise officers, and if the 
 stranger did not possess a license, what should be the 
 course to pursue ? A rough-riding, obnoxious horse- 
 
 c 
 
34 HUNTING 
 
 dealer might prove himself to be an unspeakable 
 nuisance. The difficulty, therefore, is to collect the 
 tax in such a manner that it may benefit fox-hunting, 
 and, a fortiori, agriculture, since fox - hunting is one 
 of the- bulwarks of agricultural prosperity. 
 
 It would be well if all M.F.H.'s were to follow Mr 
 Fernie's plan and lay down a fixed rule as to subscrip- 
 tions. A man going into a strange country may not 
 wish to be mean, and, on the other hand, may not wish 
 to parade his wealth by subscribing more than his 
 neighbours. What would be considered a generous 
 subscription in one country would be considered a 
 paltry one in another. Thus in some countries in the 
 provinces £10 is considered an adequate subscription 
 for a man who only hunts one day a week, and £20 is 
 deemed a liberal subscription for a three-days-a-week 
 man. In the shires such subscriptions would be thought 
 paltry to the extent of meanness. Of course the 
 experienced hunting man can tell at a glance what his 
 subscription ought to be. He has only to go out one 
 day with a pack to note how the hunt servants are 
 mounted and turned out, and to judge whether the 
 kennel menage is smart or slovenly. The late Major 
 White Melville used to declare that he could tell a 
 Leicestershire man by the way he put on his breeches, 
 and in the same way it is easy to distinguish a crack 
 hunt from a scratch hunt by the appearance of the 
 huntsmen and whips. Naturally, the smarter the turn- 
 out of the hunt servants, the greater must be the 
 expenses attaching to the masters. Every self-respect- 
 ing M.F.H. wishes to see his servants turned out as 
 smartly as money will work the oracle, and he spares 
 no reasonable expense in their liveries and mounts. 
 The Frostyfaces and Watchorns about whom Surtees 
 
THE KATIONALE OF HUNTING 35 
 
 wrote belong to a past generation of huntsmen, and are 
 as obsolete as a hunting establishment carried on upon 
 the principles of Mr Jorrock's hounds. Even during 
 the last twenty years the expenses of a hunting 
 establishment have considerably increased. On Nov- 
 ember 6th, 1875, a writer in the Fields discussing 
 the expenses of an M.F.H., laid it down as a rule 
 that £620 per annum for each day of the week was 
 the average cost of a pack of hounds. Thus a pack 
 that hunted three days a week would only cost 
 £1860 per annum. Such an estimate at the present 
 time is absurd. 
 
 We have expressed ourselves thus strongly, because 
 experience has taught us to act on the maxim, " si vis 
 jpacem 'parcc helium^' and not because we have any fear 
 for the future of fox-hunting, which we believe will 
 exist so long as a green field remains between London 
 and York. But the pessimist who says that hunting 
 as it has been known in these islands for upwards of a 
 couple of centuries will cease to exist, is often a man 
 who has a shrewd idea of how things are tending. The 
 mistake he makes is that he takes a tendency for an 
 accomplished fact, and does his utmost to exaggerate the 
 dissensions between farmers and fox-hunters, ignoring 
 the fact that depredations are invariably followed by 
 compensation. Hunting is the image of war, without 
 its guilt, and the hunting-field is the training-ground 
 which has enabled Englishmen to hold their own against 
 all rivals, so 
 
 " Let us drink ' Fox-hunting,' boys, 
 And pass the bottle round. 
 Here's to the horse, 
 And the fox of course, 
 And a bumper to the hound ! 
 
36 HUNTING 
 
 We'll toast him with a ' halloa,' 
 Such as Reynard dreads to hear, 
 
 When his brush is draggling sorely, 
 And no friendly earth is near." 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 FOX-HUNTING. 
 
 Naturally, the first object of the novice must be to 
 choose the pack of hounds with which he intends to 
 hunt. In his choice he must be guided, to a large 
 extent, by the advice of his friends. If he lives in the 
 country he will probably hunt with the local pack, 
 where he will be known to many members of the 
 hunt, who will give him more information than we 
 can. One piece of information, hov/ever, they will not 
 give him unless he asks for it, namely, the amount 
 which he ought to subscribe to the hunt funds. This 
 amount varies in different packs, but a general rule 
 may be laid down, that a man who hunts one day a 
 week should subscribe ten guineas ; three days a 
 fortnight, fifteen guineas; two days a week, twenty 
 guineas. If he hunts more than two days a week, he 
 may adopt a sliding scale, remembering that it is always 
 best to err upon the side of generosity. In some 
 provincial packs the amount may be less which he is 
 expected to subscribe. In the shires, i.e. the Belvoir, 
 the Cottesmore, the Quorn, and the Pytchley, it is 
 more, twenty-five guineas being the lowest subscrip- 
 tion for a man who rides in pink. This subscription 
 should be sent to the secretary of the Hunt before the 
 
38 HUNTING 
 
 opening day, which is generally the first Monday 
 in ]N'ovember. In some hunting countries it is not 
 " good form " to ride in pink unless the rider subscribes 
 a certain sum ; but the novice need not trouble about 
 this etiquette, since no man should ride in pink unless 
 he is a first-rate man to hounds, or an old member of 
 the hunt. We have already given an old estimate 
 of the cost of maintaining a pack of hounds — 
 £620 per annum for each day of the week on which 
 they hunt, e.g. a pack which hunted three days a 
 week would cost £1860 per annum. We have not the 
 figures before us upon which this estimate is formed, 
 but we have credible information that the actual cost 
 in many packs is no less than £1000 per annum for 
 each day of the week on which they hunt. It is not 
 advisable for us to state here the various items which 
 render this expense necessary. We need only call the 
 attention of the novice to one item, namely, " Compensa- 
 tion for damages done by Itor semen" for that is the 
 item which it is in his power to decrease or increase, 
 according as to whether he rides judiciously or thought- 
 lessly. 
 
 We have felt it to be our duty to mention the sub- 
 ject of subscriptions again, because of the numerous 
 complaints which we have received of the diminution 
 of subscription lists. We must now revert to the 
 choice of a pack. 
 
 If a man does not live in a hunting country, he 
 should choose a hunt where he has friends, good men 
 and true, who will give him a welcome. It is what 
 Charles Kingsley termed " the wholesome feeling of 
 being at home amongst friends," which constitutes one 
 of the chief pleasures of hunting. The Duke of 
 Beaufort declares that " the true pleasures of hunting 
 
FOX-HUNTING 39 
 
 are known only by those who hunt from home." Our 
 advice is, " Hunt in the same country as your friends 
 hunt." If any one of our readers be so unhicky as 
 to have no friends who hunt, then we must refer him 
 to railway time-tables, only remarking that unless he 
 be a good rider and have a first-rate horse, he had 
 better choose a provincial pack, and not one in the 
 shires. In the latter, hounds will probably race away 
 from him in the beginning of the day, and he will see 
 no more of the sport, while in an enclosed country 
 containing large woodlands, he will be able to see a 
 great deal of what hounds are doing, without jumping 
 a fence. To a fine rider on a fine horse, a gallop over 
 Leicestershire means the keenest pleasure which this 
 world can give, but the fine rider will use bad 
 language if his horse cannot go another yard, and 
 hounds are disappearing in the dim distance. 
 
 As the fox lives in an earth or underground home, 
 and only comes out at night on his foraging excursions, 
 it is necessary to "stop out" the earth while he is 
 absent on his nocturnal wanderings. So when hounds 
 are going to " draw," or try to find a fox in a particular 
 country, due notice is given to the " earth stoppers " of 
 the district to " stop out " the earths. In every hunting 
 country there are " earth stoppers," who are responsible 
 for " stopping out " the earths in their particular districts 
 (which are called " stops ") upon receiving notice from 
 the M.F.H., or person acting upon his authority. This 
 work should be completed by an hour before sunrise. 
 Then when the fox comes home he finds the door closed 
 and has to make his bed for the day in a covert, gorse, 
 or any other place which will afford him warm shelter. 
 Being a cunning animal, he is doubtless aware of what 
 is in store for him, and makes his plans accordingly, 
 
40 HUNTING 
 
 which plans are constantly frustrated by another 
 *' earth stopper," whose duty it is to " put to " the earths 
 on his " stop " upon receiving due notice. The earths 
 are " put to " early in the morning in that district or 
 " stop " to which it is likely a fox will run for refuge, 
 so as to prevent him " going to ground," and saving his 
 life, or, as it is termed, " saving his brush," for it is 
 extremely difficult to dislodge a fox from his " earth," 
 and many M.F.H.'s consider it unsportsmanlike to dig 
 them out, with which opinion we cordially agree. The 
 fox has run well to save his brush, and should be 
 allowed to live to run boldly anotlier day. 
 
 It will be seen that the success of the day's sport 
 depends in the first place upon the efficiency of the 
 " earth stopper." We must now proceed to the meet, 
 which takes place either at 10.15 a.m., 11 a.m., or 11.15 
 a.m., according to the convenience of the M.F.H. and 
 the time of year. Sometimes, though not often, it 
 takes place at 11.30 a.m. during the latter end of 
 March. But at 10.45 a.m. the fox has had time to 
 rest himself, and, unless he has not gorged himself 
 during the night, is fit to run for his brush. 
 
 To the foreigner, the social aspect of a meet of fox- 
 hounds is one of the most wonderful sights which 
 English society can show. At no other function can 
 he see such a genial honne camarade7He, and yet there 
 is a certain air of business about the gathering which 
 tells one that every member of the crowd has come out 
 to hunt, and not to enjoy a winter picnic. But he will 
 have to make his observations quickly. The old system 
 of hunt breakfasts and coffee-housing is disappearing, or 
 has disappeared. Little law is given to late comers. 
 Punctuality is the order of the day, or, as Mr Jorrocks 
 observed, "the perliteness of princes;" and within a 
 
FOX-HUNTING 41 
 
 few minutes after the advertised time for the meet, the 
 Master gives the word to the huntsman, who at the 
 head of his hounds "^ trots off' to the first covert which it 
 is intended to draw. 
 
 The order in which coverts should be drawn is settled 
 between the Master and the landowner, for thoudi the 
 former is absolute monarch of all he surveys in the hunt- 
 ing-field, he will consult, and generally defer to the 
 wishes of the latter, but the method in which a particular 
 covert is drawn is usually the same. Hounds are put 
 into covert to draw either up wind or with a cheek wind 
 in an open country, or down wind in an enclosed 
 country with large coverts. The Duke of Beaufort has 
 explained the reasons for this in his volume on 
 " Hunting," in the Badminton Library, with his usual 
 perspicuity : " In an open country, to draw down wind 
 means to get a bad start with your fox, for even those 
 that have never been hunted will be very apt to move 
 and be off, and one that knows what hounds are is sure 
 to take the hint very quickly. Should the country be 
 an enclosed one, and the coverts large, the same rule 
 as to drawing up wind applies." But the metliod is 
 open to numerous exceptions, since it is often 
 desirable that the fox shoukl not " break " covert, i.e. 
 leave covert, on one side. The owner of land adjacent 
 to that side may not want hounds to cross his land on 
 tliat particular day, or the Master may have other 
 reasons, and as we cannot too often state, the Master is 
 supreme in the hunting-field. 
 
 The novice must now be guided to a large extent by 
 the conduct of his neighbours, but in the case of small 
 
 * Hounds are couLted by couples. A pack in the fiekl would 
 comprise 20 or 25 couples, i.e. 40 or 50 hounds. 
 
42 HUNTING 
 
 coverts, he should never let his zeal persuade him to 
 follow hounds into covert. In most packs his attempt 
 to do so would be stopped at the outset hj a peremptory 
 request to keep outside. It is the Jiounds, under the 
 guidance of the huntsman, who are hunting the fox, not 
 " the field" or people who follow the hounds. When any 
 of " the field " follow hounds into covert they worry the 
 hounds in their work, worry the huntsman in his work, 
 and worry the fox, if he has not gone away, in his 
 work. There is also the risk of their horses kicking 
 hounds. In large coverts " the field " should always 
 keep in the " rides," or paths, and at least fifty yards 
 behind hounds. Should the novice view the fox, his 
 best plan is to raise his hat, and not halloa, for his 
 halloa may frighten the fox back into covert just as 
 he was going away, and prevent a good " run." If there 
 is nobody to see him raise his hat, he should gallop 
 to the huntsman and tell him the news. A fox pro- 
 vides just as good, if not a better " run," if he has three 
 or four fields' start of hounds. " Silence is golden " 
 should be the motto of the novice in the hunting-field, 
 where speech is but too often spurious copper. 
 
 It is, perhaps, necessary to state for the benefit of the 
 uninitiated that hounds hunt a fox through the scent 
 which he leaves behind him, and which he is popularly 
 supposed to carry in his brush. They hunt him with 
 their noses, not with their eyes. The peculiar nature 
 of this scent has baffied the most expert huntsmen. 
 It will be strong on one day and weak on another, 
 though the atmospheric conditions of the two days 
 are precisely similar. Sometimes it will lie on the 
 ground, sometimes it will rise beyond the reach of 
 hounds' olfactories, and sometimes it will rise and 
 then settle down again. One thing, however, is certain, 
 
FOX-HUNTING 43 
 
 namely, that it is a most ravishing perfume to the 
 hound, though the human being would hardly consider 
 it ecm cU Cologne. When a hound comes upon this 
 scent he will "speak to it," i.e. give a short bark of 
 delight. The rest of the pack will hurry to him, and 
 if they too " speak " to the scent, then a fox is afoot. 
 The first object is gained: a fox is found; the next 
 is to catch him. 
 
 If he be an old stager who has baffled his pursuers 
 before, he will probably have stolen quietly away as 
 soon as hounds entered covert. We will assume for 
 the present that this has been the case, that he has 
 "gone away," and that hounds have either hunted 
 his scent through covert, or hit upon his scent outside 
 covert. Now the enjoyment of the field may be said 
 to commence, and the novice will receive his first 
 lesson in the art of " riding to hounds." 
 
 With the rare exceptions of professional jockeys, it 
 seldom happens that the English tyro in the hunting- 
 field is a first-rate horseman. Therefore our first 
 remarks are intended for foreigners, many of whom 
 may justly lay claim to being fine riders, and others 
 who, though good horsemen, are novices in the hunt- 
 ing field. Never ride directly in the wake of hounds, 
 but on one side or other of them, and quite forty 
 yards behind. The sound of horse's hoofs in the wake 
 of hounds will make them nervous, and prevent them 
 from devoting the whole of their attention to the scent. 
 If possible, keep to the windward side of hounds, as a 
 fox will generally run down wind, though he has been 
 known to run straight in the teeth of a gale. Another 
 reason for not pressing hounds by riding in their wake, 
 is that if they check, i.e. lose the scent, horses may be 
 amongst them before they can be stopped, while in any 
 
44 HUNTING 
 
 case they have galloped over the line of scent, doing 
 much to destroy it, so that if it is advisable to " cast 
 back," i.e. take hounds back to pick up the scent, the 
 scent will be very faint or altogether destroyed. The 
 tyro should remember that the man who jumps the 
 biggest places is not necessarily the best man to hounds. 
 The best man to hounds is the man who manages to see 
 most of the work which hounds are doincr. ]N^or is the 
 hunting-field a steeple-chase course. The man who is 
 continually trying to cut down his neighbour, and who 
 forces his way through gates, without the slightest 
 attention to the ordinary rules of courtesy, only gains 
 the unenviable reputation of being a " thrusting scoun- 
 drel" A good man on a good horse should never lose 
 sight of hounds — if he can help it — but that is no 
 reason why he should feel an inward delight because 
 his neighbour loses sight of them. Eepose of manner 
 is quite as desirable in the hunting-field as in the ball- 
 room. 
 
 For the English tyro the foregoing remarks w411 
 probably be superfluous. ISTot in one case in a thousand 
 is he a good horseman on his first day to hounds. If 
 he keeps in his saddle over an easy fence he feels 
 proud, and we don't blame him if he does make the fence 
 a foot higher when he tells us about it after dinner. 
 It is no disgrace not to attempt a feat which one knows 
 is beyond one's powers, though very often failure brings 
 with it ridicule. There are plenty of old members in 
 every hunt, who, from their knowledge of the country, 
 manage to see most of the sport without jumping 
 anything bigger than a sheep hurdle, and who are not 
 worshippers of Macadam. They know every bridle- 
 path and gate in the country, and their knowledge 
 prevents tliem from ever getting in front of hounds 
 
FOX-HUNTING 45 
 
 which the roadsters often do at the risk of " heading " the 
 fox, i.e. turning him from his line. The novice cannot 
 do better than take one of these men as his pilot, for if 
 he is not actually in at the death, he will not be far 
 away. If he joins the ruck of the field who follow in 
 the wake of the straight riders on the chance of creeping 
 through the gaps which they have made, he will see 
 no sport, and when he next sees hounds will probably 
 be told that they killed their fox an hour ago. 
 
 But it is seldom that hounds run from find to kill 
 without a check, i.e. without losing the scent. Some- 
 times they pick it up again ; sometimes they lose it 
 and, a fortiori, the fox altogether. 
 
 But a check is the occasion for the huntsman to display 
 his science, and for each individual hound to display 
 his powers of scent. 
 
 The reasons for a check are too multifarious to 
 mention in detail, so we will reduce them into three 
 classes : 
 
 1. The natural cunning of the fox which often enables 
 
 him to elude hounds, e.g. after creeping 
 through a fence he will constantly, more 
 especially towards the finish of a run, turn at 
 right angles, and go down the ditch or bank on 
 the further side, or cross a flock of sheep, so 
 that the stain of the sheep may destroy his scent. 
 
 2. The hatred of the fox to hcing seen. A ploughman, 
 
 a shepherd's dog, a carriage in the road, et sic 
 ad infinitum^ will make him turn from his line ; 
 he has been " headed " in other words. 
 
 3. The mysterious qualities of scent. Allusion has 
 
 already been made to scent rising above the 
 olfactories of hounds, and setting down again. 
 
46 HUNTING 
 
 Some huntsmen seem to have a natural instinct for 
 hunting a fox, and rarely make a mistake in their " cast/' 
 i.e. in taking hounds to a point where they think they 
 can pick up the scent; others have the unfortunate 
 knack of always making the wrong " cast " first. The 
 pity is that the former are unable to tell us on what 
 principles they act : indeed they act on different prin- 
 ciples in similar cases. To quote the words of the 
 Duke of Beaufort: "As to telling a man what he 
 should do when hounds come to a check after running 
 hard — say twenty minutes — it is impossible ; but the 
 first thing to do, if, happily, no horseman were near 
 them when they checked, is to leave them alone and 
 let the hounds swing and cast forward, back and round ; 
 then the huntsman must exercise his keenest sense of 
 observation and his natural intelligence." Uxperientia 
 clocet. We have often heard a huntsman say : " It's the 
 same fox, I'll stake my life, that escaped us the other 
 day," and we believe that that huntsman was generally 
 speaking the truth, though there may have been a 
 dozen earths in or near the covert where the hunted 
 fox was found. But such men are as rare as they are 
 reliable, and, we may add, invaluable. Should the 
 novice be fortunate enough to hunt with one of these, 
 and be close to the hounds when they check, we advise 
 him to observe every movement of the huntsman, while 
 keeping a good distance from hounds so as not to 
 disturb them in their work. When he sees a hound 
 begin to " feather," i.e. when his " stern," or tail, becomes 
 violently agitated, it means that that hound has got an 
 inkling of the scent, but is not sufficiently certain to 
 " speak to it.'' Directly he does speak to it the other 
 hounds will join him like a flash of lightning. 
 
 There may be several checks in a run, so as to 
 
FOX-HUNTING 47 
 
 constitute what is termed a slow hunting run. To the 
 " first flight man," i.e. the man who is determined 
 to keep near to hounds at any cost; a slow hunting 
 run is almost as great an infliction as a " blank " day, 
 i.e. a day on which no foxes are afoot; but to the 
 novice it will have given more enjoyment than a quick 
 run, and enabled him to gain some practical knowledge 
 of the sport. If he has the good fortune to see hounds 
 run into and kill their fox, as we sincerely hope he 
 may have, let him mark the day as a red-letter day 
 in life's calendar. 
 
 The fox is far from being a coward. Not only does 
 a fox never lose his head while he is being hunted, which 
 a coward would most assuredly do, but he dies as 
 pluckily as he has run. No cry of pain escapes him. 
 He merely gnashes his sharp teeth, and does his best 
 to make them meet in the foremost hound, in which 
 attempt he generally succeeds. He knows that he has no 
 chance against twenty or twenty-five couple of his 
 arch-enemies, but he does his best to punish one — 
 sometimes two — severely, before he is rolled over. 
 We are glad to think, with all humane sportsmen, that 
 his death agony only lasts a few seconds.^ 
 
 In the majority of packs hounds are now whipped 
 off while one of the hunt servants cuts off the 
 brush, mask, and pads of the fox before giving 
 him to the hounds with the familiar "Tally- 
 ho ! Tear 'im and eat 'im, lads ! " But some M.F.H's., 
 amongst them the Duke of Beaufort, object to hounds 
 being whipped off during the cutting-up process. The 
 Duke of Beaufort used to hunt the Badminton pack 
 at his own expense, and needed only to regard 
 the efficiency of his hounds, who will be keener 
 after blood, and will therefore hunt better, if 
 
48 HUNTING 
 
 they know that they will have their blood directly 
 they have earned it, while to whip hounds off, may, 
 and probably will, make them sulky. In subscription 
 packs, however, the M.F.H. wishes to be popular 
 with his subscribers, and is unwilling to 'risk his 
 popularity by adopting a course which prevents 
 them from gaining the trophies of the chase. The 
 custom of cutting up the fox dates from time 
 immemorial. Addison, in the 115th number of the 
 Spectator, writing of Sir Roger de Coverley at home, 
 says, "His stable-doors are patched with noses that 
 belonfred to foxes of the knidit's own huntincr down." 
 
 o o o 
 
 Up till a very recent period, it was usual for the 
 Master to give the brush to the man who had ridden 
 best to hounds throughout the run : now the gift 
 of the brush is purely complimentary. It is generally 
 given to a schoolboy who manages to be in at the 
 death, especially if it be his first day with hounds, or 
 to " a fair Diana " who has shown that she is a good 
 woman to hounds. We should add that the huntsman 
 expects a sovereign from the recipient of the brush, 
 that the first whipper-in expects ten shillings from 
 the recipient of the mask, and that the second whij)per- 
 in expects five shillings, or at the least half-a-crown from 
 the recipient of a pad. Perhaps it is needless to say 
 that hunt-servants are in favour of cutting up the 
 fox. 
 
 We trust that the reader, who has not been initiated 
 into the mysteries of fox-hunting, will now have 
 gained some idea of the modern modus operandi of the 
 sport, so far as the hunting-field is concerned. But 
 much is required to be done before hounds, horses, and 
 men are fit to appear in the hunting-field. 
 
 To Ireed a perfect pack of hounds is the labour of a 
 
FOX-HUNTING 49 
 
 lifetime, for puppies are like all children, inasmuch as 
 it is impossible to tell whether they will inherit the 
 good qualities of their parents. To recruit a pack of 
 hounds is an annual labour. A hound begins to hunt 
 at eighteen months, and his average life in the hunting- 
 field is five seasons; therefore at least twenty per 
 cent, of the full strength of the pack must be entered 
 annually to fox, i.e. taught to hunt fox only, for 
 it is the nature of the hound to hunt any animal 
 which carries a scent. It is not our province to 
 teach an M.F.H. how to breed hounds ; but it is 
 our experience, that however careful an M.F.H. 
 may be in breeding hounds, only half of the 
 whelps will eventually be of any use in the hunting- 
 field. It must also be remembered that the finest 
 judges in the world cannot tell whether a whelp will 
 develop into a good hound. The breeding of hounds 
 is a lottery, but it is a lottery which subscribers to 
 hounds should take into consideration when they are 
 thinking about increasing or decreasing their subscrip- 
 tions. We will now give a brief summary of the life 
 of a good hound. 
 
 A good hound should be born in February or the end 
 of January, and be suckled by his mother as long as her 
 milk lasts, which will be for about six weeks, unless 
 she is allowed to rear a large litter, which is undesir- 
 able. We believe that no bitch should be allowed to 
 bring up more than four puppies. By May it will be 
 time for him to go to his " walk," where he will remain 
 for the year of his puppyhood. "Will you walk a 
 puppy?" is the constant request of the M.F.H. to 
 farmers and landowners towards the end of the hunt- 
 ing season, which means, "Will you take care of a 
 puppy for twelve months ? " Most people are only too 
 
 D 
 
50 HUNTING 
 
 glad to accede to the request, tliougli the foxhound 
 puppy is a mischievous beast, with a partiality for 
 scraping up flower-beds, and other freaks of a similar 
 irritating nature, and he must be allowed to run loose. 
 But we willingly pardon him for these little peculi- 
 arities — 
 
 " For he'll grow into a hound, 
 So we'll pass the bottle round, 
 And merrily we'll ' whoop ' and well ' halloa.' " 
 
 At the end of twelve months he returns to the kennels, 
 where he will probably take a prize at the puppy show, 
 to the delight of his temporary master or mistress. 
 These prizes are given by the M.F.H. for the best 
 puppies ; and as it is tlie ladies who generally have 
 to be consulted about " walking a puppy," the M.F.H., 
 if he be wise in his generation, should take care that 
 the prize be something pleasing to the feminine mind, 
 e.g. a silver coffee-pot or tea-pot. 
 
 The holiday life of puppyhood is now^ over, and the 
 puppy has to be subjected to discipline, in regard both 
 to diet and to exercise. As the hunting season 
 approaches he is exercised to a large extent on the 
 roads, so as to make his feet hard, and by the first 
 week in September he is fit, to go "cub-hunting," i.e. to 
 hunt the young foxes. Many hunting men regard 
 cub- hunting with contempt, but foxes have to be 
 thinned and young hounds have to be blooded, else 
 they will " run riot," i.e. hunt other game than the 
 fox. Cub-hunting commences at the end of August and 
 continues till the beginning of the legitimate hunting 
 season (which lasts from the first week in November 
 till the last week in March), and the hours for the 
 meets vary from 5 A.M. to 10.30 A.M., according to the 
 time of sunrise. When a hound once knows the 
 
FOX-HUNTING 51 
 
 " ravishing perfume " of scent and the taste of blood, 
 he will seldom " run riot." 
 
 The tyro who intends to hunt cannot do better than 
 go out for a few mornings' cub-hunting. It may not 
 be pleasant to tumble out of bed into a cold bath in 
 the small hours, but the ride to covert in the fresh 
 air of an Autumn morning more than compensates 
 for the previous discomfort. But besides the enjoy- 
 ment begotten of the early ride, and the feeling of 
 superiority to the lazy people in bed, the tyro will 
 gain three advantages : he will get himself into con- 
 dition, he will get his horse into condition, and he 
 will learn the rudiments of hunting. Certainly he 
 will not get a quick gallop; in any case his horse 
 will not be in a condition to gallop. Nor will he be 
 called upon to jump ; indeed, the fences are so " blind," 
 i.e. covered with foliage, that it would be dangerous 
 to jump them, for neither horse nor rider can tell 
 the nature of a blind fence. We have always 
 regarded the cub-hunting field as the best school in 
 which to teach the young rider, the young horse, the 
 young hound, and the young fox how to hunt. 
 
 Although we have already dealt with the subject of 
 subscriptions, and laid down general principles in regard 
 to their amount, we have not answered the question 
 which is often asked us in much the same words as 
 these : " I do not intend to hunt regularly ; I do not 
 care to see my name in the subscription list opposite to 
 a small amount, but I do not want to hunt for nothing, 
 and am willing to contribute my quota towards the 
 expenses of the sport. What am I to do ? '' In most 
 hunts they have a poultry fund, separate from the 
 ordinary hunt fund, for the purpose of compensating 
 farmers and others for the loss of poultry destroyed by 
 
52 HUNTING 
 
 foxes, to which a man may subscribe his one or two 
 guineas. There is in some hunts also an entire horse 
 fund, to which we have already alluded, supported by 
 similar subscriptions. Further, in countries where wire 
 is a predominant feature, there is a wire fund to defray 
 the expenses of the farmer for taking down the wire 
 at the beginning, and putting it up again at the end 
 of the season, also supported by similar subscriptions. 
 So the modest or impecunious man who only hunts 
 four or five days during the season need not be afraid 
 that small donations will not be thankfully received 
 and graciously acknowledged. Probably, after a non- 
 subscriber to the hunt has been out three or four days, 
 the secretary will suggest a subscription to one of these 
 minor funds ; but we strongly advise the non-subscriber 
 not to wait for the suggestion. If a man is invited to 
 a day's shooting, he does not wait till his host's keeper 
 asks him for the usual tip. We firmly believe that all 
 true sportsmen, whatever may be their favourite sport, 
 are generous, though they may be doubtful about the 
 form which their generosity should take ; therefore we 
 deem any apology superfluous on our part for entering 
 into these financial details. 
 
 There are no definite rules which regulate hunting in 
 the same way as there are rules which regulate racing, 
 yet there are certain unwritten laws. The man who 
 in a hunting country shoots or traps a fox purposely 
 must make up his mind to be boycotted socially for the 
 rest of his life. " Vulpecide is more criminal than 
 manslaughter," is a common aphorism amongst hunting 
 men. Certainly a man who deliberately destroys the 
 sport of his neighbours deserves the severest censure. 
 "We do not dispute for one moment that every man has 
 a right to his own convictions, one of which may be a 
 
FOX-HUNTING 53 
 
 rooted antipathy to foxes and fox-hunting, but that is 
 no reason why he should shoot the fox. 
 
 We have often heard a man say that he would 
 rather be an M.F.H. than a Peer of the realm. The 
 social prestige of an M.F.H. is undoubtedly great; 
 indeed in many counties it is second only to that of the 
 Lord-Lieutenant ; but his labour is still greater. Many 
 good sportsmen are apt to think only of his work in 
 the field, and to disregard his work in the kennels and 
 in the study. His correspondence alone is enormous. 
 He is deluged with letters claiming compensation for 
 damages done by foxes or by horsemen. He is in con- 
 tinual communication with covert-owners and land- 
 owners. He receives complaints of every sort, kind, 
 and description. Upon his shoulders lies the anxiety 
 of maintaining, and, if possible, increasing the standard 
 of his hounds by the judicious breeding, drafting, 
 and purchasing of puppies. He has to choose not only 
 his own horses, but the horses of the hunt servants. 
 He has to propitiate the farmers and covert-owners, and 
 must take care to offend nobody interested in the hunt. 
 It follows, ex necessitate rei, that he must have plenty 
 of money and plenty of time to spare, and must enjoy 
 a large personal popularity to enable him to fulfil his 
 multifarious duties. The debt of gratitude which we 
 owe to him is too great to be paid, but we can by 
 courtesy and though tfuln ess do much to lessen his 
 worries in the field, and prove our appreciation of the 
 sacrifices which he has undoubtedly made on our 
 behalf. For a man who devotes the major portion of 
 his time to providing us with amusement ought to 
 receive more courtesy than that which is generally 
 extended from one gentleman to another. Don't 
 hesitate to catch his horse for him if he gets a fall 
 
64 HUNTING 
 
 and his horse gets away, even if it happens in the 
 middle of a quick run. Don't ride in front of him if 
 he be a hard riding man. Should his remarks be 
 occasionally severe, remember that he has to manage 
 the whole field, sometimes numbering over two 
 hundred people, and in fashionable hunts approach- 
 ing to five hundred, and that -it is his object to show 
 them as much sport as possible. 
 
 The next precept, which it is our duty to inculcate, 
 relates to the farmers. We assume without fear of 
 contradiction that the existence of fox-hunting is 
 dependent upon the goodwill of the landowners and 
 tenant farmers. Yet this fact, patent as it must be to 
 everybody, is constantly forgotten by hunting men, 
 who often treat the farmers with scant consideration. 
 It is the Cockney sportsman who is the greatest sinner 
 in this respect. Having no practical knowledge of 
 agriculture, he leaves gates open, breaks down fences 
 unnecessarily, and rides over growing wheat with 
 indifference to the damasje which he causes. He is 
 a perpetual thorn in the side of the M.F.H., who knows 
 full well that he is rendering useless his own efforts 
 to propitiate the farmers. Finally, he often commits 
 the unpardonable error of attempting to snub the 
 farmer. We will do him the justice to believe that 
 he does not mean to be guilty of insolence, but his 
 ignorance may be as exasperating as if it were insolence. 
 The following practical rules should be strictly ad- 
 hered to : 
 
 1. Never leave a gate open, unless there is somebody 
 immediately behind. The effect of gates being 
 left open is that cattle may, and probably 
 will, stray all over the country, though in what 
 
FOX-HUNTING 55 
 
 direction the farmer cannot form an idea, so 
 that he will probably be compelled to waste a 
 day in finding and driving them back. Should 
 young colts or fillies get loose, they may damage 
 themselves permanently. 
 
 2. Never jump fences ^Lnnecessarily. Unnecessary 
 
 jumping leads to the formation of unnecessary 
 gaps, which have to be filled up by the farmer 
 with much time, labour, and expense. 
 
 3. Never ride over vetches^ young clover seeds, ivinter 
 
 heans, or groiuing vjJieat, unless the farmer leads 
 the way. 
 
 4. Second liorsemen must follow the second Jiorsemen 
 
 of the hunt servants. The latter will most 
 probably have had instructions from the M.F.H. 
 to keep to roads and bridle paths, and never to 
 jump, as the duty of the second horseman is to 
 bring his master's second horsQ fresh to him at 
 the end of the first run, or in the middle of the 
 day. 
 
 It will be seen at once that the observance of these 
 rules will diminish considerably that important item 
 in the expenses of the hunt, namely, " compensation 
 for damages done by horsemen." Lord Lonsdale, on 
 accepting the mastership of the Quorn's hounds, 
 declared that he should enforce 2 and 4 as rigidly as 
 he could, and on the first day of his mastership, 
 severely censured a man before the whole field for 
 unnecessarily jumping a fence while hounds were 
 trotting to covert. In regard to 4, we have often 
 been asked whether a pad-groom, i.e. a lady's groom, 
 should be allowed to follow his mistress. We must 
 answer the question in the negative, always excepting 
 
56 HUNTING . . 
 
 the case of a little girl out in charge of the family 
 coachman. A lady has, invariably, some male relation 
 in the field to come to her rescue should she need 
 assistance; and a pad-groom, who conceives it his 
 duty to be always close to his mistress, is an unmiti- 
 gated nuisance in the field. Even in the absence of 
 the male relation, a lady may be sure of getting all 
 the help, and more of it than she requires, in the 
 case of an emergency. Therefore we fail to see the 
 slightest necessity for a pad-groom in the field. Of 
 course we class those ladies, who merely come out to 
 see hounds draw and to trot along the roads for an 
 hour or so, in the same category with the little girl 
 and the family coachman. 
 
 It is, perhaps, needless to tell the tyro that, if he is 
 riding a kicker, he should avoid any crowd at a gate 
 or gap, or while standing outside covert; but if his 
 horse be a confirmed kicker — and many good hunters 
 are so — he should wear a conspicuous label on his back, 
 marked K — I — X, which he can get from his saddler. 
 If he discovers the kicking propensities for the first 
 time in the field, he should not only avoid crowds, 
 but, if he hears anybody behind him, should raise 
 his whip-hand behind his back. 
 
 A mistake which not only the tyro who is a fair 
 rider, but many men who ought to know better, often 
 make is, that when they elect to follow a man, i.e. 
 take him as their pilot, they ride too close behind him, 
 or, to use the technical expression, they "ride in his 
 pocket." The result is that if the pilot's horse makes 
 a blunder, the man who is following him is on the 
 top of him, with consequences more or less disastrous, 
 and, if the pilot is able to speak, the language will 
 generally be unfit for publication. 
 
FOX-HUNTING 57 
 
 We cannot by means of our pen teach a man how- 
 to ride, for the task is beyond the powers of any 
 writer. An hour in the saddle is worth more than 
 a library of books. We have only attempted to teach 
 a man how to ride in the hunting-field. We will give 
 him, as a concluding word of advice, a favourite 
 maxim of Assheton Smith's, which is equally appli- 
 cable, whether the obstacle be a sheep-hurdle or a 
 Leicestershire oxer, " Throw your heart over, and your 
 horse is sure to follow." Then will he be able to 
 re-echo the stirring words of Mr W. Phillpotts 
 Williams : 
 
 " Welcome the chase witli its balmy November ! 
 
 Welcome the colours of scarlet and grey ! 
 Welcome the friends that we meet and remember, 
 
 Year after year on our opening day ! 
 Blame me not, reader, nor say I'm romancing : 
 
 Phantom-shaped horsemen I seem to discern, 
 Riding among the gay squadron, advancing. 
 
 Each one equipped for the cliase in his turn ; 
 Close by the side of each sportsman is riding 
 
 The shade of some friend who has loved him in chase, 
 Rousing him, helping him, stirring, and guiding 
 
 The hunter who bears him with mettle and race." 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 STAG-HUNTING. 
 
 The inliabitants of Devon and Somerset will, doubtless, 
 blame us for having given the priority to fox-hunting 
 over stag-hunting, and will tell us with truth that the 
 deer was a fashionable and favourite beast of venery 
 long before fox-hunting was dreamt of. On the other 
 hand, the men who follow hounds in the fashionable 
 shires are sometimes apt to sneer at stag-hunting, 
 forgetting that hunting the wild red deer on Exmoor 
 and the Quantocks is very different to galloping after 
 the carted deer in the neighbourhood of Ascot. But 
 we will not compare the quality of the two sports. 
 Our order of treatment was based on quantity, and as 
 there is much in common between fox-huntinoj, stasj- 
 hunting, and hare-hunting, we shall confine ourselves, 
 while describinn^ the two latter branches of huntincf' 
 to pointing out how they differ from fox-hunting. First 
 of all, we v/ill describe stag-hunting proper, i.e. the 
 pursuit of the wild red deer, and afterwards, hunting 
 the carted deer ; though we state at once that we shall 
 not take any part in the controversy anent the Eoyal 
 Buckhounds. The controversy is brought annually 
 before our notice, like Christmas bills and Christmas 
 boxes, which we either delegate to the waste-paper 
 basket or grumble about. Whether hunting the carted 
 
 58 
 
STAG-HUNTING 59 
 
 deer is, or is not sport, is a question which we must 
 ask the readers to decide for themselves, but there is 
 no man who has ever followed the Devon and Somerset 
 stag-hounds over the wild moorlands of Exmoor, who 
 will not confess that the pursuit of the red deer beats 
 fox-hunting. Even such an enthusiastic fox-hunter as 
 the Duke of Beaufort has declared that few things 
 can compare with a run after a " warrantable " stag, at 
 the stern of the Devon and Somerset Hounds, though 
 he adds wdth humorous satire, that there is probably 
 nothing more difficult than to keep there. Of course, 
 we admit that the fox now holds pride of place in the 
 opinion of the majority of hunting men, always ex- 
 cepting those of Devon and Somerset, if only for the 
 reason that the fox affords more amusement to the 
 greater number of sportsmen. There are over 150 
 packs of fox-hounds in England, but it is only with 
 the Devon and Somerset hounds that stacj-huntinof can 
 be seen as the hunting man ought to see it. Exmoor 
 is the home of the red deer, and though naturalists 
 differ as to whether or not the red deer is indiQ;enous 
 to English soil, it has been made evident that he has 
 lived in Devon since the Norman Conquest, so that if 
 he came as a visitor, he must have liked his quarters. 
 
 For the convenience both of our fox-hunting readers 
 and the novice, we have arranged our description 
 of Exmoor stag-hunting in the followin.c: succinct 
 form : — 
 
 *o 
 
 1. Difference hehueen stag and fox for hunting 
 
 purposes. 
 
 2. Difference hetwcen fimling a stag and drawing 
 
 for a fox. 
 
60 HUNTING 
 
 3. Difference hetiueen riding to stag-Jwunds and riding 
 to fox-liounds. 
 
 1. Difference letiveen stag and fox for Jmnting 
 purposes, — With the exception of a vixen in cub, or 
 suckling cubs, a fox is always runable, i.e. fit to be 
 hunted. A stag is seldom hunted before he is five 
 years old — never before he is four years old. Hinds, i.e. 
 the females of the stag, are hunted as soon as they 
 are strong enough to run before hounds. A " warrant- 
 able " stag means a stag fit to be hunted. The age of 
 a stag can be told at a glance by his horns, as under : — 
 
 Yearling, no horns ; two-year-old, a short spire ; 
 three-year-old, spire lengthened and "brow-antler " pro- 
 jected ; four-year-old, horns eighteen inches in length 
 and "bay antler" projected ; five-year-old, " tray antler" 
 projected and two points on the top of one horn ; six- 
 year-old, brow, bay, and tray, and two points on each 
 horn ; seven-year-old, brow, bay and tray, and two points 
 on one horn and three points on the other ; eight-year- 
 old, brow, bay, and tray, and three points on each 
 horn. 
 
 The expressions " two on top " and " three on top " 
 mean respectively a seven-year-old and an eight-year- 
 old stag. A stag sheds his horns annually in the 
 spring, and they are replaced in about fifteen weeks. 
 During the period of replacement the stag suffers great 
 agony and weakness owing to loss of blood. 
 
 Stag-hunting begins in the second week of August, 
 and continues till the first week in October. Then the 
 rutting season, alias the stag's honeymoon, commences, 
 and, like that of the human being, lasts for about 
 three weeks, after which hind-hunting commences, and 
 lasts till the beginning of April. It must be further 
 
STAG-HUNTING 61 
 
 remarked that the fox is monogamous, and that the 
 stag is polygamous ; also the stag carries a much 
 stronger scent than the fox, though he is his equal in 
 cunning, and infinitely superior to him in fleetness and 
 staying powers. The last two qualities demand a 
 larger hound than the ordinary fox-hound. Twenty- 
 live inches is the standard for a stag-hound, as against 
 twenty-three to twenty-three-and-a-half inches for a 
 fox-hound. Again, a stag-hound must possess more 
 stamina than a fox-hound, since the runs are longer and 
 the ground rougher. With hardly any exceptions, 
 stag-hounds are the fox-hound puppies which have been 
 rejected by the M.F.H. at the puppy show on account 
 of their size, but a hound that has once been entered 
 to fox or any other quarry is of no use to hunt stag. 
 
 The two chief artifices which the stag makes use of 
 to elude pursuit are "to take soil" and "to run to 
 herd." By a curious anomaly, which we are unable to 
 explain, " to take soil " means to take to the water, and 
 by going up or down stream for some two hundred 
 yards, destroy his scent before taking again to the open. 
 When hard pressed a stag will even take to the sea. 
 " To run to herd " means to push up another stag out 
 of covert and lie close, on the chance of hounds hunting 
 the disturbed stag. The most trustworthy hounds are 
 constantly deceived by this stratagem, and it requires 
 the utmost vigilance of the huntsman to discern it. 
 When the stag is finally brought to bay he will get his 
 back against the bank or a rock in a stream, and woe 
 betide the hound who comes within reach of his horns. 
 The older hounds take the matter very quietly, for they 
 know the cowp dc grace will be administered by the 
 knife. Two men seize the horns, and a third — the 
 huntsman, if he be up — cuts the jugular vein. The 
 
62 HUNTING 
 
 " head," i.e. the horns, is cut off, and the " slots," i.e. 
 the feet or pads of a fox. The carcass is severed from 
 the venison, cleaned, and given to the hounds. We have 
 only to add that the venison is distributed amongst 
 the supporters of the hunt according to the directions of 
 the Master. 
 
 2. Difference hetween finding a stag and draiving 
 for a fox. — The duties of an earth- stopper in fox- 
 hunting are child's play in comparison with those 
 of an " harbourer," i.e. the man whose duty it is to 
 " harbour " the stag or to discover what covert he has 
 chosen for his temporary home. After the earth- 
 stopper has discovered what earths exist upcm his 
 "stop," his duties are merely mechanical, though, of 
 course, he may perform those duties either carefully or 
 carelessly. But to " harbour " a stag is far more 
 difficult than to hunt him. Experts declare that it 
 requires more skill to harbour a wild red deer on 
 Exmoor than to stalk a deer in the Highlands, 
 even if the conditions were equal. But " harbouring " 
 has to be done in the grey dawn, and the nose of the 
 red wild deer of Exmoor is more sensitive than that of 
 his northern cousin. Besides, it can hardly be called 
 pleasant work to sit in a tree for two or three hours 
 in a drenching rain on a cold September morning, 
 waiting for the appearance of a " warrantable " stag, or 
 to examine the ground for the marks of his "slots." 
 Some harbourers are so shrewd that they can tell the 
 age of a stag from his slots. Even when his patience 
 is rewarded, he can never be sure that the covert won't 
 be disturbed before the "tuRers" are put in. 
 
 Unlike fox-hunting, the whole of the pack is not 
 put into covert, but only a few experienced old 
 hounds, which are called "tufters." The number 
 
STAG-HUNTING 63 
 
 of tufters varies from two couple to six couple, 
 accordiuer to the size of the covert to be drawn. 
 While the tufters are drawing covert the remainder 
 of the pack is housed in any barn or outhouse which 
 may be conveniently adjacent. When the stag has 
 taken to the open, the pack is immediately laid on 
 the scent as rapidly as possible, for a stag moves so 
 quickly that it does not do to give him any more 
 law than can be helped; therefore, directly hounds 
 are clapped on the line, the huntsman should push 
 them along as fast as his horse can carry him. 
 
 3. Difference hctwecn riding to stag-hounds and 
 riding to fox-hounds. — N'ot only the tyro in the hunt- 
 ing-field, but the hardest riders who ever rode over 
 Leicestershire, must remember that in riding over 
 Exmoor "discretion is the better part of valour." A 
 stranger in the land should never attempt to take 
 his own line, but should follow a pilot. Exmoor is 
 the wildest moorland in England, intersected by deep 
 combes, and covered with treacherous bogs. We 
 believQ that no man can ride to stag-hounds on Ex- 
 moor in the same way that he would ride to fox- 
 hounds ; indeed, no sane man would attempt to do so. 
 The man who follows stag-hounds must ride from 
 " point to point " ; he can not ride on the stern of 
 hounds. 
 
 One final hint we would give to the reader, 
 who may wish to make a flying visit to Exmoor 
 during the end of August or September, before cub- 
 hunting has risen to the dignity of hunting. Let 
 him not take his own horses with him ! The deep 
 combes and bogs of Exmoor would ruin the legs of a 
 horse accustomed to the flat pastures of the shires. 
 Eor ourselves, we have always been able to see most 
 
64 HUNTING 
 
 of the fun, when mounted on a stout Exmoor pony. 
 These ponies are marvels of endurance, and as sure- 
 footed as goats. Besides, they are on their native 
 heath. Curiously enough, they have generally proved 
 disappointing when translated to fox-hunting countries. 
 
 In a book intended to be of practical utility, an 
 historical retrospect is out of place, but we cannot 
 refrain from calling attention to the fact that long 
 before the Brocklesby, Burton, Blankney, or Eufford 
 packs were thought of, the Earls of Lincoln hunted 
 the stag over the ground now devoted to fox-hunting, 
 while the green plush worn to-day by the hunt 
 servants of the Badminton and Heythrop Hunts is a 
 relic of the days when the Dukes of Beaufort hunted 
 the stag. But wild woodlands and moorlands have 
 disappeared beneath the ploughshare, and stag-hunting 
 in cultivated districts had either to disappear or to be 
 carried on artificially. When a stag is roused, a 
 run is sure, or nearly always sure, to follow, a truth 
 in which lies the popularity of stag-hunting to-day. 
 So the latter alternative was chosen, and the quarry was 
 taken to the place of meeting in a cart. The deer- 
 cart was probably first used about 1775 ; but we read 
 that in 1715 one of the Houghton deer was 
 " let go." 
 
 The deer-cart was described by Tom Hood, as 
 differing only from a hearse in that it contains the 
 " deer alive, and not the dear deceased." Others have 
 described it as a bridal chariot out of which the deer 
 proudly steps like a bridegroom. However, whatever 
 may be its outward appearance, it is sufficiently 
 comfortable inside, resembling more than anything 
 else a luxurious loose box on wheels. Indeed, in every 
 detail connected with this branch of hunting, there is 
 
STAG-HUNTING 65 
 
 an entire absence of cruelty, the tendency, if anything, 
 being to pamper the deer. That the prominent sports- 
 men who have been masters of staghounds during 
 the present century, to say nothing of the thousands 
 of good men who must have followed them, would have 
 calmly sat down and sanctioned the perpetration of 
 cruelty, as the extraordinary band of persons who are 
 agitating for the abolition of the Eoyal Hunt allege, 
 is not for one moment to be imagined, nor would 
 anybody, except people who know nothing about the 
 details of stag-hunting, ever suppose that cruelty has 
 any place in hunting the carted deer. 
 
 Let us now state briefly the difference between fox- 
 hunting and hunting the carted deer. 
 
 The carted deer is brought to the rendezvous in his 
 cart, and having been let go and given a certain law, 
 leads the hounds and their followers for a gallop till he 
 thinks he has had enough of it. The whole affair is 
 merely a cross-country run on horseback, and of 
 hunting in the true acceptation of the term there is 
 none. There is no necessity to find landowners who 
 will preserve deer, nor to find your deer before you 
 can hunt him. Now, in fox-hunting, hours may elapse 
 and numerous coverts have to be drawn before hounds 
 find the scent of Sir Eeynard, and during that time 
 a huge field, most of whom know nothing about agri- 
 culture, are trampling upon seeds, and larking over 
 fences, and generally causing that damage which makes 
 the farmer antagonistic to sport. But the deer, when 
 released from the cart, immediately goes away and 
 avoids coverts, or, at all events, does not dwell in them. 
 Thus he saves the farmers' fields from constant tram- 
 pling, because, as a rule, he merely crosses the holding 
 en route for somewhere else, instead of running in 
 
66 HUNTING 
 
 rings all day. And, as the gallop seldom lasts more 
 than a couple of hours, it follows that much less land 
 is crossed than when foxhounds meet at 11 a.m. and 
 remain out till four or five in the afternoon. Thus it 
 will be seen that in the home counties, where for many 
 years the carted deer has found his headquarters, stag- 
 hunting can be indulged in without serious damage to 
 the farmer, though fox-hunting would be so ruinous as 
 to be wellnigh impossible, though, of course, in parts 
 of the home counties we find good fox-hunting and 
 wild scenery. Indeed " Brooksby " stated only in 1880 
 that the wild stag might be allowed to roam between 
 Aldershot and Windsor, and be trusted to do no more 
 harm than on the hills of Devon and Somerset. 
 
 To the man who hunts to ride, whether he be a 
 novice or an old stager, few things are more enjoy- 
 able than a gallop after the Queen's or Lord Eotlis- 
 child's hounds. The etiquette, at all events with the 
 Queen's, is to ride in pink; and Lord Coventry, the 
 present Master of the Buckhounds, is desirous that 
 this rule of etiquette should be obeyed, if only out 
 of compliment to an ancient, royal, and national insti- 
 tution, which nominally provides its followers with 
 sport for nothing. We say nominally, for the novice 
 who hunts from London with the Queen's will find 
 his training expenses heavy, and his hunting will cost 
 him quite as much as if he lived in the country and 
 subscribed to the local pack. But money, and the want 
 of money, are generally matters for after-consideration 
 with the hunting man, who, in the excitement of a run, 
 only says, "Hang the expense!" — the word is not 
 always "hang" — if black care sits behind him in the 
 pigskin. We must warn the novice who hunts with 
 the Queen's, however, not to join that band of men 
 
STAG-HUNTING 67 
 
 who hunt only because they think it the correct 
 thing to do, or for the sole purpose of wearing a 
 scarlet coat, and who are in a state of fancying them- 
 selves, and admiring their boots en inofih all day 
 long, until they get a fall — when they don't. But 
 these men, fortunately, are in the minority, and the 
 novice will find that, in spite of the sneers of a 
 section of fox-hunters, there are many good sports- 
 men who do not think it beneath their dignity to 
 gallop after the carted deer. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 HARE-HUNTING. 
 
 " Hast thou pursued the timorous flying hare ? 
 
 Mark the poor wretch, to overshoot his troubles, 
 How he outruns the wind, and with what care 
 
 He turns and crosses with a thousand doubles. 
 The very musets through the which he goes, 
 Are like a labyrinth to amaze his foes." 
 
 From commencing the present chapter with the above 
 quotation, our readers will judge beforehand that we 
 are not in favour of hunting the hare, and with certain 
 exceptions, their judgment will be correct. To see puss 
 on her last legs, limping slowly along under a hedge, 
 while hounds are ringing her funeral knell in the field 
 above, is a sight to move the pity, and not the ardour, 
 of the sportsman. 
 
 " Her very grief may be compared well 
 To one sore sick, that hears the passing bell." 
 
 Most works on sport ignore this branch of hunting 
 altogether, but, as in the absence of fox or stag, a quiet 
 canter after harriers may be better than nothing at all 
 in the opinion of some of our readers, and as the 
 sport is undeniably a branch of hunting, we think 
 that a short account of it is indispensable in the present 
 volume. 
 
HAKE-HUNTING 69 
 
 The position held by hare-hunting in the category 
 of sports may be gathered from the fact that it is 
 etiquette for a Master of Harriers or a Master of 
 Beagles to consult the M.F.H. or M.S.H. before hold- 
 ing a meet, should there be a pack of foxhounds or of 
 staghounds in the neighbourhood. As we have already 
 made use of the expression "a quiet canter," it is 
 hardly necessary to add that one can see as much of 
 the sport on a pony or a covert-hack, as if one were 
 mounted on a thoroughbred hunter, and almost as much 
 on foot, as if one were mounted on a pony. We will, 
 therefore, at once describe the hounds which hunt 
 the hare. 
 
 1. The Hdrrier. — The Harrier is an undersized fox- 
 
 hound, in the same way as the staghound 
 is an oversized foxhound. His averacje height 
 is from eighteen to nineteen inches. He is 
 not nearly as fast as his bigger brethren, 
 though he appears to have as keen a nose. 
 In appearance he is a miniature foxhound. 
 
 2. The Beagle. — The beagle is not unlike the harrier, 
 
 but he has a thicker throat and body, and 
 stouter limbs. His height varies from twelve 
 to fourteen or fifteen inches. Whatever may 
 have been his origin, he can now lay claim 
 to a breed of his own, and must not be con- 
 founded with 
 
 3. The Rough Beagle, which is a cross between a 
 
 harrier and a rough terrier, possessing the 
 sharp yap of the terrier, instead of the musical 
 sound of the harrier. He has a coat of stiff 
 wiry hair, and stiff whisker-hairs. 
 
70 HUNTING 
 
 4. The Dwarf, or Eabhit Beagle is delicate in form 
 and aspect, but he has a good nose, and is 
 swift of foot. His height is only ten inches. 
 These beagles are universally followed on 
 foot. 
 
 It is an inviolable rule when hunting with harriers 
 never to halloa. The reason for this is the timidity of 
 the hare, for if the hare is frightened by a halloa, he 
 will probably turn back into the mouth of the pack, 
 which is oblisfed to hunt him closelv on account of the 
 weakness of his scent. As he runs in a circle, he 
 will constantly return to his own "foil" or "form" 
 from which he was aroused, and thus, by mixing the 
 fresh with the stale scent, occasionally manage to 
 baffle his pursuers. But, as a rule, his life is doomed 
 directly he is aroused from his " foil." Such is the 
 timidity of the hare, that he has often been known 
 to drop dead of a broken heart before hounds have 
 run into him, and if hounds run into him alive, his 
 piteous squeal is a sound not to be forgotten. 
 
 But it must be remembered that in some parts of 
 the country, notably in Norfolk and Suffolk, it is a 
 question of either hunting the hare, or no hunting at 
 all. The Suffolk foxhounds do not possess a single 
 covert, and when the Master, Mr Barthropp, at the 
 annual meeting of the hunt in April 1897, proposed 
 that they should celebrate the year by purchasing a 
 covert, or, at least, that something might be done in 
 hiring coverts, the chairman said that directly a 
 covert was to be let, it was taken for shooting, and 
 thus more rent was given for it. But the preponder- 
 ance of hare-hunting over fox-hunting in East Anglia 
 is not due so much to the unpopularity of foxes 
 
HARE-HUNTING 71 
 
 amongst the farmers and landowners, as to the un- 
 popularity of the country amongst the foxes, who 
 never seem to thrive on the cold broads of the eastern 
 coast, though hares abound as, so far as our experience 
 has taught us, they always do in a country where 
 wild fowl are plentiful. 
 
 But East Anglia is far from being the only part of 
 the country devoted to "currant jelly dogs" and "puss 
 'unting." Doubtless, many of our readers have been 
 initiated into hare-hunting while staying at Brighton. 
 As " Brooksby " wrote nearly twenty years ago, there 
 is something harrier-like in the atmosphere of Brighton. 
 Brighton, ever since the days of the Eegency, has been 
 associated with sport, but the sport has never been of 
 a vigorous nature. Thus, hare-hunting seems to suit 
 the Brightonians, for the most ardent lover of harriers 
 could hardly call hare-hunting a vigorous pursuit. It is 
 a good fox-hunting school for boys and girls, and affords 
 exercise for old gentlemen who are no longer strong 
 enough to enjoy the real thing. Moreover, it is a sport 
 without a literature, and the pen of the readiest writer 
 could not make the pulse of his reader beat quicker by 
 an account of harriers, any more than he could forge 
 a romance out of the art of dribbling a ball into a series 
 of little holes in the ground in fewer strokes, than had 
 been known before in the stirring annals of golf. Yet 
 to the jaded Londoner, or to the invalid, a gallop on the 
 Sussex Downs is full of health, even if it lacks excite- 
 ment. Another point in favour of a pack of harriers is 
 that the expense is small in comparison with the 
 expense of a pack of fox-hounds, and so they are often 
 maintained for the amusement of farmers, in which 
 case the stranger should be very careful how he rides 
 over land, or the familiar question, " Why comes this 
 
72 HUNTING 
 
 prophet amongst us ? " may be translated into language 
 not generally used in a lady's boudoir. However, if 
 only for the reason that we advise a man to see 
 different methods of hunting in different countries, so 
 as to enlarge his knowledge of sport and make new 
 friends, with whom at least he has one object in common, 
 we advise the novice to see harriers once. Then he 
 can judge for himself whether he wishes to see them 
 again. But we must conclude this chapter lest we dip 
 our pen in bitter ink. 
 
CHAPTEE V. 
 
 OTTER-HUNTING. 
 
 The otter-liunting season is popularly supposed to 
 take place during the months of April and May, when 
 fox-hunting is over and hunting men are unable to 
 relinquish the pleasure of hunting some beast of venerie. 
 Yet, in the strict sporting sense of the term, the season 
 for otter-hunting may be said to extend throughout the 
 whole year, for so great is the ignorance about the habits 
 of the otter that opinion is divided as to whether there 
 is a breeding period to constitute a close season, or 
 whether otters breed indiscriminately all the year round. 
 Indeed we might almost say that nobody knows any- 
 thing about the habits of the otter, except that he is 
 a persevering foe to fish, and has such a sensitive 
 palate that he will only eat the most delicate parts of 
 the fish, except when compelled by hunger, leaving the 
 coarser parts on the bank for rats and other vermin to 
 feed upon. For this reason otter - hunting is fast 
 becoming an obsolete sport, and, indeed, is described as 
 such in the later editions of the " Britannica Encyclo- 
 paedia," and " Wood's Natural History," though our own 
 experience is that it is more popular than ever amongst 
 the small clique of sportsmen who are privileged to 
 enjoy it. Yet, if the otter and otter-hunting tend to 
 destroy the fisherman's sport, it can hardly be expected 
 
 73 
 
74 HUNTING 
 
 that riparian owners will encourage the preserving and 
 hunting of the otter. Further, we think that the 
 keenest otter-hunter must admit that it would be 
 selfish to rob hundreds of anglers of their enjoyment 
 so that a small field may get a few hours' excitement. 
 So the otter now is only hunted in small streams where 
 a rod is seldom seen, and the Masters of Otter-Hounds 
 have to take their packs from county to county like 
 wandering gipsies, and be thankful if they only get 
 a week's sport in one district. 
 
 To revert for one moment to the prevalent ignorance 
 about the otter and his ways and habits, it appears, 
 upon the authority of the Duke of Beaufort, that the 
 otter has a stronger objection to being seen than even 
 the fox has. Yet in India trained otters are almost as 
 common as trained dogs, and we have heard of two 
 gentlemen in England, namely, Mr Eichardson, and 
 a gentleman at Carstree, who possess, or did possess, 
 otters which run about the house, and generally behave 
 themselves like ordinary house dogs. One curious fact 
 is that the tame otter is perfectly docile, with the 
 exception that he will not allow his snout to be 
 handled, while the wild otter is both more nervous and 
 fiercer than any other English beast of the chase. One 
 of the few things that is certain is that the otter is not 
 an amphibious creature naturally, but only takes to the 
 water in order to procure its food. 
 
 Now let us consider the otter-hound before dealing 
 with the present recognised methods of otter-hunting. 
 The thoroughbred otter-hound is really a Welsh 
 harrier, bearing much the same resemblance to the 
 English harrier as the Welsh terrier bears to the fox- 
 terrier. At the present time, hov/ever, the so-called 
 packs of otter-hounds are invariably mixed packs. We 
 
OTTER-HUNTING 75 
 
 have seen a half-bred Airedale terrier and a water 
 spaniel in the same pack, and it would appear that any 
 dog with courage which will take to the water can be 
 made into an otter-hound. We have been told that 
 the pure otter-hound is such an incorrigible fighter 
 that it is almost an impossibility to keep a pack of 
 them ; for in default of otter they will fight amongst 
 themselves, apparently for the fun of the thing, like 
 Irishmen at a wake. Mr Wood, who has had as much 
 experience of them as anybody, gives an instance 
 where half the pack were killed during the night in 
 kennel, owing to one of these free fights. 
 
 To a certain limited extent the habits of the otter 
 are like those of the fox, as he spends all the day in 
 his "couch," which answers to the earth of the fox, 
 and issues forth at night in search of his food. As a 
 rule, the " couch " is a natural hole in the river bank, 
 overlooking the water, for the otter seldom takes the 
 trouble to make a home for himself. Therefore, in 
 otter-hunting, the first thing to do is to track the otter 
 to the "couch," where he may happen to be resting 
 for the day, for, except when he is filled with parental 
 anxiety, he will change his "couch" according to his 
 •whim. In order to track him, it is necessary to 
 examine the ground minutely for his " seal," a peculiar 
 mark left by the round ball in his foot. Then a sudden 
 rush to a hole, among some tree roots, where the over- 
 hanging bank almost touches the water, followed by 
 a loud outburst of music from thirteen couple of hounds, 
 proclaims the welcome fact that a find has been made. 
 Every nerve thrills with expectation and with hope. 
 The hounds themselves seem to draw in fresh life with 
 every breath. They cluster round the hole in a great 
 confused mass, a score of heads endeavouring to 
 
76 HUNTING 
 
 squeeze into an opening, originally too small for one. 
 They attack the banks with claws and teeth, and make 
 frantic efforts to penetrate the stronghold, but their 
 progress is slow, as the roots are many and provokingly 
 thick. 
 
 Having successfully tracked him to his " couch " and 
 roused him, when he will immediately dive, it is 
 necessary to keep a sharp look-out for the " vent," i.e. 
 the slight ripple caused by his coming to the surface 
 to breathe, when he only shows a small portion of his 
 snout above water. Hounds, we should say, will follow 
 his scent even in the water, for he carries a stronger 
 scent than any other beast of the chase, nor is it 
 repulsive to the human olfactory nerves like that of a 
 fox. But as an otter can swim faster than any hound, a 
 portion of the pack should always be kept on the bank in 
 readiness for the next " vent," for the otter's method 
 of eluding his pursuers is to "vent" and dive again, 
 thus continually keeping himself hidden from view 
 until he either finally baffles his pursuers or becomes 
 exhausted. 
 
 Should he be so unfortunate as to get into shallow 
 water, his "chain," i.e. the ripple left behind him, 
 immediately betrays his whereabouts, and the death 
 is then only a question of time in the true sense of 
 the term, for few animals die harder than an otter. 
 Endowed by nature with peculiarly sharp teeth to 
 enable him to hold his slippery food, he can make 
 them meet through bone, and even through wood. The 
 most courageous hounds hesitate to go in to him, and, 
 as the stag receives his cou2^ de grdce from the knife of 
 the huntsman, so the otter receives his death stroke or 
 strokes from the spear or spears of his human 
 pursuers. 
 
OTTER-HUNTING 77 
 
 The otter-hunter, unless he wishes to catch his death 
 from rheumatism, must have a kit suited to the sur- 
 roundings of the sport — to wit, big boots, well cut and 
 slashed, so as to let the water out as soon as it gets in, 
 stockings, breeches, and flannel, and plenty of it. The 
 sport is a favourite one with ladies, who adopt short 
 skirts and dispense with petticoats in favour of knicker- 
 bockers. Clad like this, neither man nor lady need 
 fear the after-effects of a plunge into mid-stream. 
 
 The chief part of the science of otter-hunting, after 
 hounds have challenged the holt, proclaiming that 
 an otter has couched there very recently, is to prevent 
 him slipping away into deep water. To do this effectu- 
 ally, as many of the followers as are necessary to make 
 a line across the stream must jump into the water, and, 
 by joining hands, form a barrier against the otter ; but 
 it is necessary in this case that you should keep your 
 feet together, and hold tight, for the otter is just as 
 likely as not to dive between your legs and upset you 
 and all your neighbours. Such accidents, of course, 
 only increase the fun of the sport, but we have always 
 derived keener enjoyment from this fun when we have 
 witnessed it from the bank. In any case, it is advis- 
 able not to take your station next to a novice, for the 
 result will probably be baptism, coupled with total 
 immersion. The novice means to do his best, but is 
 apt to lose his head amid the splash and niiUe of 
 struggling hounds around him. 
 
 Besides, the old proverb that too many cooks spoil 
 the broth applies to otter-hunting as it does to fox- 
 hunting, though in a lesser degree, and a Master 
 does not like every member of his field to take pro- 
 miscuously to the water, when they can see the sport 
 just as well from the bank. Nor should a novice be 
 
78 HUNTING 
 
 too anxious to holloa when he thinks he views the 
 "chain," for the chain may prove to be only eel 
 bubbles, in which case he would find himself in much 
 the same position as the fox-hunter (?) who halloaed 
 to a hare. 
 
 As packs of otter-hounds now are, more or less, 
 peripatetic, and pay flying visits into various counties, 
 it is impossible for us to tell our readers where they 
 can view the sport at any specific time; but during 
 April, May, and the beginning of June there is always 
 plenty of otter-hunting in the Midlands, especially 
 Leicestershire and the borders of Staffordshire and 
 Shropshire. However, the fixtures as a rule only come 
 within the ken of the local sportsmen, the outside 
 information being confined to the news that the otter- 
 hounds are in the district, and the actual sport being 
 confined to a privileged few, as it would obviously 
 never do for a crowd of foot-people to run helter-skelter 
 over land during these months of the year. But we 
 venture to say that when once any of our readers 
 have seen an otter "tailed," he will become a keen 
 votary of the sport, and echo the song of the Bucks 
 otter-hunter : — 
 
 " So rise with the morn, 
 
 Take whip, pole, and horn, 
 For we hunt him quite early, the ottei:. 
 
 The dew's on the grass, 
 
 'G'ed hon jpour la chasse.' 
 He's a devil for scent is the otter. 
 
 Chorus : 
 " So here's to the beast called the otter ! 
 He's wily and canny, the otter. 
 No sport is more thrilling, 
 No beast takes more killing, 
 Than the varmint that's known as the otter." 
 
PAKT 11. 
 
 The Accessokies of Hunting. 
 
CHAPTER T. 
 
 THE HUNTER. 
 
 " I'd a lead of them all when we came to the brook, 
 A big one— a bumper — and up to your chin ; 
 As he threw it behind him, I turned for a look. 
 There were eight of us had it, and seven got in." 
 
 It may seem an insult to the hunter to call him an 
 accessory, but we use the word in its literal sense, 
 as meaning, "that which accedes or contributes to," 
 and nobody can deny that the hunter accedes or con- 
 tributes to the pleasure of the hunting man. It is 
 the first accessory which he requires, the most difficult 
 accessory to make, and the most difficult accessory to 
 buy ready-made. As this article is intended for the 
 tyro in the hunting-field, we shall not discuss the 
 various arguments which refer to the "making" of a 
 hunter. The finest riders who ever rode to hounds 
 differ in their opinions ; but we firmly believe that 
 this difference of opinion lies in the fact that these 
 fine riders forget that horses are like human beings? 
 inasmuch as no two horses are exactly similar. A 
 system which may succeed with one horse may result 
 in failure with another. Our own experience has 
 taught us that a good horse is often made a bad hunter, 
 
 1? 81 
 
82 HUNTING 
 
 though a bad horse may be made a good hunter. We 
 use the terms " good horse " and " bad horse " in refer- 
 ence to the shape and breeding of the horse, since it 
 may be objected that a good hunter cannot be a bad 
 horse. Our object in making these remarks is to warn 
 the novice never to purchase a horse, however good 
 his appearance may be, unless he has been ridden to 
 hounds and has the character of being a good hunter. 
 He can not make him one, since he probably has had 
 no experience, but he may spoil the horse, and break 
 his own neck in the attempt. 
 
 Gallons of ink must have been expended over advice 
 to novices how to buy a hunter. Our own advice 
 is brief and simple : " Make up your mind ivJwJ you want 
 and the price that you are willing to pay for it, and see 
 that you get it" In horse-dealing, as in any other 
 business, a man should remember that it is the duty 
 of the vendor to sell what he has, and the duty of the 
 purchaser to buy what he wants. These sentences 
 may sound like copy-book maxims, yet men are 
 tempted, and daily yield to the temptation of buying 
 horses which they do not require. " He was so good- 
 looking, and the price was so small," is the usual 
 explanation, an explanation which is a good defence 
 for a horse-dealer, but an indictment for lunacy in 
 regard to a gentleman who wishes to buy a hunter 
 for his own riding. 
 
 The first two items, which a man must consider in 
 the choice of a hunter, are his weight and the length of 
 his purse. A man who rides 14 stone (riding weight 
 includes weight of saddle and bridle; the difference 
 between riding weight and walking weight may be 
 
THE HUNTER 83 
 
 roughly estimated as 1 stone) will have to give twice 
 as much for a hunter as a man who only rides 12 
 stone. A thoroughbred, six -year -old, sound, made 
 hunter, capable of carrying 14 stone to hounds, is not 
 to be bought under £150, though the same class of 
 horse, capable of carrying 12 stone to hounds, can be 
 bought for £60, or even less. We do not mean to 
 tell the novice who weighs over 14 stone that he 
 cannot get a horse to carry him to hounds under 
 £150 ; we only repeat that he cannot get a perfect hunter 
 under that sum. Therefore let him remember when 
 he hears of a perfect hunter up to 14 stone to be sold 
 " dirt cheap," that the horse may be as cheap as dirt, 
 and as useless and inconvenient. 
 
 If money is no object, we recommend the tyro to 
 put himself into the hands of a respectable horse- 
 dealer. If he does not know the dealer personally, 
 but has been recommended to him, he should tell him 
 three things : — 
 
 (a) Eiding weight. 
 
 (b) Eiding qualifications, i.e. whether he is a 
 
 hard riding man, or a man who only wants 
 to see sport with no risk to his neck. 
 
 (c) The price he is willing to give. 
 
 "We have heard and examined many complaints 
 about horse-dealers, and are convinced that in ninety- 
 nine cases out of a hundred it is the complainant who 
 is to blame. If the purchaser tries to "best" the 
 horse-dealer, the horse-dealer will try to "best" the 
 purchaser, and it is a monkey to a mouse-trap on the 
 
84 HUNTING 
 
 horse-dealer, as the phrase has it ; but, if the purchaser 
 avows his ignorance of horse-flesh, candidly states his 
 powers of horsemanship, and states the price which 
 he is willing to give, telling the dealer that he 
 relies upon his judgment to procure the necessary 
 horse, the dealer will find and sell him the horse 
 which he requires at a fair price. We admit that it 
 is a hard trial to many men to confess ignorance; 
 but it is wiser to confess one's ignorance than to ex- 
 pose it. It is not to the advantage of the horse- 
 dealer to defraud his customers, and the horse-dealer 
 knows such to be the case. 
 
 Very often a man does not know what his riding 
 qualifications are, therefore, when possible, he should 
 go to a dealer who has seen him in the saddle. The 
 dealer will know the class of horse he wants, and 
 will see that he gets it. We strongly recommend 
 every man to buy thoroughbreds for hunting; their 
 bones are firmer and more compact, and though they 
 look small, they are heavier than their half-bred 
 cousins, and will do more work with less fatigue to 
 themselves and to the rider than a hackney will do. 
 But we must warn the novice against buying " weeds " 
 from racing stables, for should the "weed" pass the 
 examination of the veterinary surgeon, the probabilities 
 are that he — or she — has developed temper. Very 
 often a horse is "weeded," i.e. discarded for want of 
 pace ; but our advice is : Don't buy a horse from a 
 racing stable unless you know the trainer, and dis- 
 cover from him his reasons for parting with him. 
 Again, horses bought out of a racing stable, though 
 they may ie safe jumpers^ are invariably "pullers," 
 
THE HUNTER 85 
 
 SO long as they see another horse in front of them. 
 But they seldom are safe jumpers, as they have got 
 into the habit of brushing their fences and galloping 
 through hurdles, and regard a water-jump in the 
 hunting-field as that 
 
 " Shallow dug pan with a hurdle to screen it, 
 That cocktail imposture, the steeple-chase brook." 
 
 Owners of racing stables will doubtless blame us 
 for making these remarks, but they know perfectly 
 well that they don't get rid of horses unless they 
 have sufficient reason for doing so. 
 
 Never buy a horse without having the opinion of a 
 good veterinary surgeon. "VVe have heard and read 
 many statements to the effect that "vets" are con- 
 stantly bribed by horse-dealers. This may be so, on 
 the principle that every man has his price and that 
 there are black sheep in every fold; but we do not 
 suspect our doctor of poisoning us when he gives us 
 medicine ; why, then, should we suspect our " vet." of 
 swindling us when he gives us an opinion about a 
 horse ? Now, we hold no brief for the defence of 
 " vets," nor do we know that there is any necessity 
 for defendincj them, but we warn the novice that there 
 are certain facts in regard to a horse whicli nobody 
 but a professional expert can enlighten him upon. 
 Tor example, we do not believe that anybody but a 
 " vet " can judge the eyesight of a horse. Therefore 
 do not grudge your " vet " his fee. 
 
 If a man buys a horse during the hunting season, he 
 should stipulate that he has at least one day's hunting 
 on him before completing the purchase. Unless the 
 
86 HUNTING 
 
 intending purchaser is known personally to the dealer, 
 the dealer will probably object to this stipulation ; but 
 as most dealers are willing to let out hunters on hire to 
 probable customers, the objection can be easily sur- 
 mounted by hiring the horse. We do not believe that 
 it is possible to judge the qualities of a hunter without 
 riding him to hounds. Besides, we must recollect that 
 in hunting there exists a partnership between the 
 rider and the horse, and that it is within the range of 
 probabilities that the horse may object to the partner- 
 ship. The price which the novice should pay the 
 dealer for the hire of a horse for a quiet day's hunting 
 must depend upon the extent of the dealer's business, 
 the weight of the rider, and the reputation of the 
 hunt ; but it should never exceed two guineas. 
 
 Even if the length of his purse will not permit the 
 novice to buy thoroughbred horses, he should be 
 careful to see that the dam was well-bred. A thorough- 
 bred mare and an underbred horse will produce a better 
 foal than a thoroughbred horse and an underbred mare. 
 Many explanations of this fact have been given in- 
 volving the natural laws of heredity ; but apart from 
 heredity, we think that the foal learns a good deal from 
 its mother after parturition in the paddock. At any 
 rate, it is a curious coincidence that foals not only 
 inherit the jumping qualities of their dams, but very 
 often their jumping cleverness as well. Therefore, in 
 buying young horses it is always well to find out what 
 sort of character for jumping the dams had. If the 
 dam possessed the trick of going hard at her fences, 
 and suddenly swerving in her last stride, for no tangible 
 reason, the foal will probably possess it as well. It is 
 
THE HUNTER 87 
 
 almost impossible to break a persistent refuser of the 
 trick of refusing. Therefore such a horse cannot 
 become a good hunter, for the first requisite in a hunter 
 is that he should be able and willing to jump. The 
 second requisite is that he should be able to stay 
 Now, the staying powers of a horse will depend largely 
 upon the condition in which he is, which subject we 
 intend to deal with at a later period under the heading 
 of "Stable Management." We need only state here 
 that light-ribbed horses are invariably deficient in 
 staying power. The distance, either horizontally or 
 vertically between the back-rib and the hip bone, should 
 never be more than four inches. We prefer the dis- 
 tance to be three-and-a-half inches. If the distance is 
 less than three-and-a-half inches the horse may gain 
 some additional strength, but he will lose activity. 
 He will be too compact, or, as it is termed, " too tightly 
 coupled," and will not be able to gallop or to extend 
 himself over his fences as well as a less compact horse. 
 We have made these calculations on the assumption 
 that the horse stands fifteen hands, two inches. 
 
 Although we have advised the novice never to buy 
 a horse without having the opinion of a good veterinary 
 surgeon, yet we wish to save him the trouble and 
 expense of constantly employing a " vet " to examine 
 horses which are worthless for hunting purposes. We 
 hope that the following hints may be of service to him 
 in the preliminary choice of a hunter. 
 
 The forefeet of a horse should be exactly similar in 
 shape and size. The slightest dissimilarity means 
 lameness, either past or present, and either alternative 
 means future lameness. The crust, i.e. the wall of the 
 
88 HUNTING 
 
 foot, should be nearly round, the inner side being 
 slightly more oval than the outer side. From the top 
 of tlie crust, i.e. the " coronet," where the hoof and the 
 hair meet, to the bottom or toe, the angle should be 
 45°. As the feet have to carry the horse and the 
 rider, good feet are more essential than anything else. 
 
 The shorter the distance between the knee and 
 fetlock joint, i.e. the cannon or leg-bone, in comparison 
 with the length of the forearm, or, in other words, the 
 greater the length of the forearm in comparison with 
 the distance between the knee and fetlock joints, the 
 stronger the horse. The circumference of the distance 
 between the knee and fetlock joints should be the same 
 at any point. The fetlocks must be free from puffiness 
 or any enlargement of bone, and the pasterns should be 
 sufficiently long to be pliable ; short pasterns are also 
 apt to develop enlargements of bone. 
 
 The shoulder of a horse should be set as far back 
 into the back as possible, for the further back the 
 shoulder is set, the more of the horse will there be 
 in front of the rider. 
 
 The body or " barrel " of the horse should be deep and 
 curved like the beams of a ship, not flat. To be able 
 to judge the curve of the "barrel" the purchaser 
 must stand in a perfectly straight line behind the 
 horse. As already stated, the vertical distance between 
 the back rib bone and the hip-bone must not exceed 
 four inches ; if it does so exceed, the horse will 
 be slack-loined, i.e-. wanting in strength at the very 
 place where he will most feel the weight of the rider. 
 In other words, a slack-loined horse is never up to 
 carrying much weight, and is apt to rick his back. 
 
THE HUNTER 89 
 
 The hips of a hunter cannot be too wide; "ragged" 
 or prominent hips may offend the eye, but they 
 certainly do not tend to lessen the strength of the 
 horse, and the hunter must have propelling power to 
 carry him over any reasonable fence. 
 
 We trust that the novice will find these few hints 
 to be of practical use to him in the preliminary choice 
 of a hunter. We have purposely omitted to mention 
 the head of the horse, because the difference between 
 a good head and a bad head is apparent to anybody 
 who is not blind. We would only say that the fore- 
 head should be straight ; a prominent forehead, in nine 
 cases out of ten, means vice and stupidity. Nor 
 have we said anything about colour, for " a good horse 
 cannot be a bad colour." Of course if the purchaser 
 has any preferences or objections in regard to colour, 
 he should state them to the dealer in the first place ; 
 but we see no reason for holding any such preferences 
 or objections. 
 
 Though we shall have to speak of bits later on in 
 Part II., it will not be out of place to mention 
 here that the purchaser should always ask the vendor 
 in what bit he has been accustomed to ride the horse, 
 for a horse may be as gentle as the proverbial lamb in 
 one bit, and exhibit the temper of the arch-fiend in 
 another. 
 
 We have often been asked what is the best height 
 for a hunter. The inquirers might just as well ask 
 us what should be the height of a wife. We can 
 only say that tall horses are more pleasant to ride 
 than short lobby horses, and, what perhaps is of more 
 interest to the novice, easier to sit over fences. 
 
90 HUNTING 
 
 Besides, it is surprising the difference which a hand — 
 i.e. four inches — makes to a horse in regard to his 
 power to see what is on the other side of a fence. 
 The result is that tall horses seldom blunder on the 
 landing side of a fence. Digby Collins says, "In a 
 big flying country the height of a hunter is of little 
 consequence, so long as it is over fifteen hands one 
 inch." 
 
 In conclusion, we do not advise the tyro to be 
 persuaded to buy an old hunter, under the impression 
 that the horse will be able to teach the man to ride. 
 As a rule, old horses are far too clever, and are apt 
 to judge their distance at a jump too accurately with 
 nothing to spare ; and, when they do fall, it means 
 a nasty accident, for they lack the spirit of young 
 horses, and instead of rising quickly, lie on the rider. 
 The treatment of the hunter will be dealt with in the 
 next chapter. 
 
CHAPTEE II. 
 
 STABLES AND STABLE MANAGEMENT. 
 
 When a man first commences to keep horses his chief 
 difficulty is his stable. This arises from the fact that 
 unless he is the freeholder of the land on which the 
 stables are to be erected, he is naturally unwilling 
 to erect a permanent building at his own expense 
 upon another man's property, while the stables already 
 built are probably worse than useless. House-agents 
 are in the habit of describing an ill-drained, ill- 
 ventilated, ill-lighted barn as a stable. We agree 
 that it is a stable — for rats, mice, and other vermin ; 
 but to place a valuable hunter in such an erection 
 is cruelty to the horse and madness on the part of 
 his owner, for such filthy stables are only hot-beds 
 of disease. We, therefore, strongly advise any man 
 who rents a stable to thoroughly examine it, and to 
 insist upon the landlord making the necessary per- 
 manent improvements before he allows a horse to enter 
 beneath the roof. We further strongly advise the 
 landlord to make these necessary improvements, as 
 the outlay need not be heavy, and the result will 
 materially increase the value of his property. Should 
 it be found impossible to make these improvements 
 
 91 
 
92 HUNTING 
 
 without incurring great expense, then we advise either 
 the landlord or tenant to consult Messrs Humphrey's, 
 of Knightsbridge, of whose stabling we shall have 
 more to say later on. 
 
 The aspect of a stable should be south or south-west, 
 so that the horses face north or north-east. The stable 
 will thus gain the greatest possible amount of light with 
 the least possible amount of glare to the horses. 
 
 The situation of the stable should be on a dry 
 soil. Many architects with antediluvian ideas seem to 
 have forgotten the deluge. They advise stables to be 
 built in a valley, pleading that warmth and shelter are 
 necessary for horses. If the windows and doors fit 
 properly, and the ventilators act properly, so that there 
 is no unhealthy draught, the question of shelter need 
 not arise. In regard to warmth, the temperature of 
 a stable should always — winter and summer — be 60°, 
 but it is not necessary to build a stable in a low valley 
 in order to obtain this temperature. The groom who 
 keeps his stable hot to make the coats of his horses 
 shine is like the Chinaman who burnt his house to 
 roast his pig. 
 
 The construction of the outside v/alls of a stable, 
 should, if possible, be of hard stone. Bricks absorb 
 moisture, thus making a stable damp. In the absence 
 of a stone quarry, we recommend the corrugated iron 
 lined with wood, but there must be ample space 
 between the iron and the wood — the more ample the 
 better — which space should be filled up with saw-dust, 
 or some non - conducting material. If the buyer 
 patronises a good firm, these remarks are superfluous, 
 but, as very often he is seduced into employing a local 
 
STABLES AND STABLE MANAGEMENT 93 
 
 tradesman, we advise him to superintend the work 
 personally, and to see that such hints as we are able to 
 give him are rigidly acted upon. For example, if a 
 careless builder neglects to use sufficient non-conducting 
 material, the corrugated iron will, in hot weather, 
 turn the stable into a furnace. Many people prefer 
 painted cement to wood for the inside lining of the 
 walls, for the reasons that it is easier to keep clean and 
 more economical. AVe doubt the truth of both reasons, 
 while the appearance of wood is far superior to that 
 of cement. We feel certain also that horses do not 
 care to live in a place resembling an Ebenezer chapel, 
 and in regard to stables, the horse is the first person to 
 be considered. 
 
 In regard to roofing, many people are in favour of 
 a thatched roof, for the reason that it is warmer in 
 winter and cooler in summer. We hold many objec- 
 tions to thatched roofs. In the first place, it is extremely 
 difficult to find a good thatcher out of Dorsetshire, and 
 a badly thatched roof is useless. In the second place, 
 they absorb more damp than any other kind of roof, 
 as anybody who has ever lived in a thatched house can 
 testify. In the third place, they are expensive in 
 regard to the initial cost, and constantly need repairing. 
 In the fourth place, they serve as breeding-places for 
 vermin ; and in the fifth place, they are a source of 
 danger from fire. The only argument in their favour 
 which we have ever heard is that they look pretty. 
 We agree that, to the artistic eye, a thatched roof is a 
 pleasant appendage to a country parsonage, though the 
 parson's fat cob may differ from us; but a thatched 
 roof on a gentleman's stable always reminds us of a 
 
94 HUNTING 
 
 dilapidated farm-building. Slate roofs are so liideous 
 to the eye that we constantly wonder why they should 
 be used for any kind of building, more especially 
 as they are continually getting out of order, and during 
 a high wind the slates are often either completely 
 torn away or loosened, the serious consequences of 
 which we need not emphasize. Good tiles, well laid, 
 form the best roof of which we know. 
 
 In regard to drainage we need only quote a passage 
 from Major Fisher's admirable book entitled, "Through 
 the Stable and Saddle-room " : " Let the gutters from 
 each stall or box run direct into one common gutter 
 which traverses the stable from one end to the other, 
 and the further this gutter is extended beyond the 
 stable in its open form before it is received into any 
 underground drain, the better. As far as stable 
 drainage is concerned, nothing further is necessary." 
 We perfectly agree with this opinion, and warn our 
 readers against any elaborate system of drainage. 
 As in human habitations, so in stables, it is necessary 
 beyond all things that the drainage and ventilation 
 should be perfect. Ventilation means the ingress of 
 fresh air and the egress of foul air. Yet not only a 
 large majority of grooms, but a large proportion of 
 masters, labour under the delusion that ventilation 
 means draught, which will cause the horses to catch 
 cold. Consequeutly, we often find stables reeking with 
 foul air, with the result that the horses suffer from 
 every imaginable form of lung disease. Major Fisher, 
 whose long experience of cavalry stables gives 
 additional weight to his opinions, states in the follow- 
 ing words the best method to ensure perfect ventilation : 
 
STABLES AND STABLE MANAGEMENT 95 
 
 " There should be one or more (according to the size of 
 the stable) ventilating shafts in the roof itself, and one 
 or more on each side of the stable near the top of the 
 walls. These should have what is termed 'louvre 
 boards' and cords to allow of their being opened or 
 closed, wholly or partially, as desired. Furthermore, 
 there should be ventilating gratings a few inches from 
 the floor on all the walls, and these should also be 
 furnished with closing bars, so that they can be kept 
 open or shut." So far, so good; but if there were a 
 hundred ventilators in the stable many grooms would 
 never dream of opening one of them. As to which 
 ventilators should be opened and which shut must 
 depend upon the state of the weather and of the wind. 
 But we presume a groom has sufficient common sense 
 to know that the ingress of fresh air causes the egress 
 of foul air, and that he must regulate his ventilators so 
 that the rush of fresh air expels the foul air without 
 causing a draught. 
 
 The windows of a stable should be behind the horses, 
 i.e. facing south or south-west, providing that the 
 aspect of the stable is such as we have recommended; 
 but if the aspect be north or north-east, they must be 
 placed in front of the horses, and as near to the ceiling 
 as possible so as to prevent any glare in front of the 
 horses' eyes. Lattice windows are preferable to those 
 made of squares of glass, and have a more sportsman- 
 like appearance; but in either case they should be 
 made to open upon pivots, and have holland blinds to 
 shield the glare of the sun when necessary. One win- 
 dow to three stalls, or loose-boxes, is sufficient, unless 
 the aspect is closed in by trees or other buildings. 
 
96 HUNTING 
 
 We have often been asked wliether the forage loft 
 should be between the ceiling and roof of the stable. 
 We think it should be so placed, as it is the most 
 convenient situation so far as the grooms are concerned, 
 and also serves to keep the stable warm. 
 
 The door of the stable should be at least six feet, or, 
 if possible, seven feet in width. Passing through a 
 narrow doorway, horses are apt to knock themselves 
 against the side-posts, and to do themselves serious 
 injury. The doors should be half-doors, i.e. cut 
 horizontally in the centre. There should be no pro- 
 jections of any sort in the door. Sunken bolts and 
 ring handles obviate any necessity for these projections, 
 which are apt to, and often do, injure a horse. 
 
 We have now to consider the flooring of a stable. 
 The substance undoubtedly should be the hard 
 corrugated or grooved blue bricks, specially manu- 
 factured for the purpose, so carefully laid that the 
 grooves fit into one another and thereby form a 
 miniature system of drainage. The gangway should be 
 as wide as space permits, but certainly not less than 
 eight feet in width, and the ground surface should be 
 perfectly level. We do not think that there can be 
 any difference of opinion between the relative merits of 
 loose-boxes and stalls. Unfortunately, space often 
 prevents the use of loose-boxes; but it is easy to 
 improvise loose-boxes by placing strong bars of oak 
 from the stall posts across the gangway to the wall, 
 a method which is now constantly adopted in old- 
 fashioned stables. The economical objection to loose- 
 boxes, namely, that they take more straw with which 
 to litter them than stalls, has long been exploded, since 
 
STABLES AND STABLE MANAGEMENT 97 
 
 it follows that the greater the space to be littered, the 
 less amount of straw will be soiled and trodden upon 
 and have to be removed. In regard to size, twelve feet 
 by thirteen feet is a fair size for a loose-box, and 
 thirteen feet in length by eight feet in width for a 
 stall. Nothincj is more dangerous than for a horse 
 excited by the idea of leaving the stable to be obliged 
 to turn round in a narrow stall. 
 
 The slope of the surface flooring of a stall has long 
 been a subject of disagreement amongst men of the 
 greatest experience in all matters connected with the 
 stable. We state at once that we think the gradient 
 should be five and a half inches in thirteen feet. If the 
 rider wants to stand still by covert-side or anywhere 
 else, and leaves the position to the horse, he will choose 
 to place his forelegs on an elevation on a proportionate 
 gradient to the one we have given with his hind legs. 
 We contend, therefore, that this position is the most 
 natural and the most comfortable one for the horse. 
 We have noticed that where the surface is flat, horses 
 contract the pernicious habit of "standing over." In 
 most hunting and racing stables a gradient such as we 
 have described is now usually found."^ 
 
 We have now completed our survey of the struchcre 
 of a stable, and have endeavoured to make that survey 
 embrace either a two- stall or a twenty-stall stable. 
 We further trust that those of our readers who have 
 stables ready provided for them will have learnt how 
 
 ^ We ought to mention that the Duke of Beaufort is in favour 
 of the flat surface, and that such a surface is invariably used at 
 Badminton. 
 
 G 
 
98 HUNTING 
 
 tliey can make certain structural alterations without 
 incurring a great expense. But as the owner will, 
 doubtless, consign to a local builder the task of making 
 any such alterations, we warn him that personal 
 supervision is necessary, or the last state of the stable 
 may be worse than the first. Still, if the alterations 
 are merely confined to proper ventilation, we venture 
 to think that the benefit will be found to be great ; 
 while drainage can be made perfect at a very small 
 cost. Besides, a man who can afford to buy hunters 
 ought to be able to afford, at least, a healthy stable in 
 which to keep them. It is now our duty to consider 
 the interior fittings of a stable. 
 
 We will start by saying that there should be nothing 
 superfluous in a stable, and that all the fittings should 
 be as simple as possible. The more superfluity, the 
 more dirt and dust and the more things to be kept 
 clean. Again, the greater the simplicity the greater 
 will be the tidiness. Sim;plex munditiis should be the 
 motto for a stable. 
 
 The stall partitions should be made of oak or pitch- 
 pine boards. It is false economy to use deal, which 
 is liable to splinter, and has, therefore, to be constantly 
 renewed. These partitions are now made so as to be 
 movable ; thus by removing the partition and putting 
 up the oak bars already referred to on the two adjacent 
 partitions, a loose-box, sufficiently roomy for the most 
 capricious animal, can be made in a few minutes, and 
 the hunting man may be sure that after a long day his 
 tired horse will appreciate the luxury. Besides, though 
 space may not permit the use of loose-boxes, there 
 should always be, at least, one spare stall in the stable, 
 
STABLES AND STABLE MANAGEMENT 99 
 
 and so the movable partition enables the owner to gain 
 a multum in parvo. The pillar reins should be made 
 of stout leather, and always looped up when not in 
 use. Many people prefer chains, because they wear 
 for ever. Our objection to them is that they make a 
 noise. If a restless horse is fastened to chain pillar 
 reins he rattles them, makes himself more restless, and 
 disturbs the other horses. Besides, there should be 
 as little noise as possible in a stable. Also, there 
 should never be any hard, unnecessary fittings in a 
 stable against which a horse could, by any possibility, 
 knock himself. Other people prefer the white eight- 
 plaited cord pillar reins, but they require constant 
 pipe- claying, and then do not look as smart and 
 sportsmanlike as the leather ones. We may add 
 that the preference for the former is chiefly among 
 military men ; perhaps there is some subtle attraction 
 in pipe-clay. 
 
 We believe that the mangers should be made of 
 enamelled iron, not wood. Wooden mangers are apt 
 to make horses crib biters. Besides, they are not so 
 easy to keep clean as those made of enamelled iron. 
 But whether made of wood or enamelled iron, they 
 should be constantly scrubbed with salt and water, 
 for the manger is to the horse what the plate is to 
 the human being. The rack should be as close to 
 the manger as possible, and not above the horse, for 
 a horse should be able to eat his food in a comfort- 
 able position, and not be obliged to stretch his neck 
 like a giraffe when he wants to eat. Many men 
 have discarded racks and let their horses eat their 
 hay from the ground; but we do not agree with 
 
100 HUNTING 
 
 this custom, for it is apt to make horses " stand over," 
 and to encourage them to eat their beds. One modern 
 improvement which we strongly urge our readers to 
 use is an enamelled basin or water-trough, which can 
 be bought and fixed in a stall or loose-box at a trifling 
 cost, so that the horse can drink when he is thirsty. 
 The habit of giving horses their water out of a 
 bucket at stated intervals is barbarous. One might 
 as well tell a groom to drink his allowance of 
 beer at a draught as another groom wanted the 
 jug. The stomach of a horse is not like the boiler 
 of an engine, though many people fail to see the 
 difference. 
 
 There should be no cupboards in a stable, only 
 shelves, on which nothing but the actual grooming 
 utensils should be placed, and a peg for the dung 
 basket. Where carriage horses are kept, another 
 peg, or two pegs, are necessary, upon which to hang 
 harness, while harnessing or unharnessing. Every- 
 thing except the actual grooming utensils should be 
 kept in the saddle-room. We even object to the 
 presence of a corn bin in the stable. 
 
 We take the following list of necessary stable 
 utensils from Major Fisher's work, already referred 
 to. The list is composed for a stable of one or two 
 horses. 
 
 One stable fork . 
 One bass broom . 
 Three birch brooms 
 One wheelbarrow . 
 One shovel 
 
 ^0 3 
 
 2 
 
 9 
 
 1 
 3 6 
 
 Carry forward . .^193 
 
STABLES AND STABLE MANAGEMENT 
 
 101 
 
 Brought forward 
 One dung basket . 
 One wooden bucket 
 One iron pail 
 One stable lamp . 
 One half -gallon corn measure 
 One corn sieve 
 One iron corn bin (2 sacks) 
 One iron corn bin (1 sack) 
 
 . £1 9 
 
 3 
 
 3 
 
 6 
 
 5 
 
 
 
 3 
 
 
 
 5 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 2 
 
 
 
 1 7 
 
 9 
 
 18 
 
 
 
 £4. 14 
 
 6 
 
 We append to this list Major Fisher's list of groom- 
 ing utensils. Then we shall add such remarks as seem 
 to us to be most advisable for the guidance of the 
 amateur. As in the list of stable utensils, this list is 
 composed for a stable of one or two horses. 
 
 One body brush . 
 
 £0 
 
 6 
 
 6 
 
 One water brush . 
 
 
 
 5 
 
 6 
 
 One dandy brush . 
 
 
 
 2 
 
 
 
 One curry comb . 
 
 
 
 
 
 6 
 
 One mane comb . 
 
 
 
 
 
 6 
 
 Two sponges (one at 2s., one at Is.) 
 
 
 
 3 
 
 
 
 One hoof pick 
 
 
 
 
 
 6 
 
 Three rubbers 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 6 
 
 Two chamois leathers 
 
 
 
 4 
 
 
 
 One burnisher 
 
 
 
 3 
 
 6 
 
 One clipping machine 
 
 
 
 8 
 
 6 
 
 One singeing lamp 
 
 
 
 2 
 
 6 
 
 One pair of stable scissors 
 
 
 
 2 
 
 
 
 Two sets of woollen fawn-coloured 
 
 
 
 
 bandages 
 
 
 
 11 
 
 
 
 
 £•2 
 
 11 
 
 _£ 
 
 We thus get a total of £7, 6s. for the necessary stable 
 
 utensils for one or two horses. 
 
 A good saddler will 
 
102 HUNTING 
 
 supply a good serviceable article at the price we have 
 quoted. Having already said that simplex munditiis 
 should be the motto of a stable, whatever the size 
 may be, it is perhaps needless for us to say that all 
 ornamental gear should be avoided. A stable is not a 
 lady's boudoir, and any superfluous ornament is un- 
 sportsmanlike. Such superfluous ornament is only seen 
 in the stables of an elderly lucky Throgmorton Street 
 speculator. A sportsman detests such superfluities. 
 
 We must advise the novice to see that his brushes 
 have screwed, not glued, backs. Glued backs soon come 
 off, and then the brushes become useless. We have 
 quoted the cheapest price for sponges, because ex- 
 perience has taught us that the expensive sponges 
 last no longer than the cheap ones. 
 
 Where gas is available it should be used for lighting 
 the stable. Where it is not available, "hurricane" 
 lamps, which burn oil — but not paraffin — should be 
 used. Tallow candles are uncleanly and unsightly; 
 besides grooms are apt to take the candles out of their 
 sockets, thereby creating a dangerous risk of fire. 
 
 In regard to this danger of fire, we cannot write 
 too strongly. In every stable smoking should be 
 strictly prohibited. Not only the grooms, but the 
 master and his guests should never smoke in the 
 stable. Let our readers consider for one moment the 
 amount of inflammable matter which necessarily exists 
 in a stable — the straw beds, the fodder, and the wood- 
 work; let them also remember that horses will not 
 leave fire, and that it is an impossibility to make 
 unharnessed horses leave a burning stable ; then we 
 feel sure that they will agree with us that every 
 
STABLES AND STABLE MANAGEMENT 103 
 
 precaution should be taken in order to guard against 
 the slightest risk of fire. We have no objection to 
 grooms smoking 'in the saddle-room, even while at 
 work, but a pipe in the stable should be strictly for- 
 bidden. 
 
 Before quitting the stable for the saddle-room, we 
 will give our judgment on horse-clothing. As we are 
 writing about hunting, we presume that the horse has 
 been clipped and singed, i.e. that his natural clothing 
 has been removed; and we take this opportunity of 
 stating that we disagree with the habit of leaving the 
 " saddle " of the horse undipped. The habit promotes 
 heat, and consequent soreness of back. A good saddle 
 should require neither a natural nor an artificial 
 saddle - cloth. We have to provide the horse with 
 artificial clothing, made of kerseymere. The colour 
 and pattern are, of course, matters for the master's 
 taste, in the same way as the colour and pattern of 
 his own clothes are; but, like his own clothes, the 
 clothing of his horse should fit well. This statement 
 may appear to be an unnecessary aphorism, but, un- 
 fortunately, few saddlers take the trouble to fit a 
 horse. It may be their incompetence, or it may be 
 their laziness, but the fact remains that horse-cloth- 
 ing is seldom made to fit properly. How often do we 
 see sore withers and ugly bare spots caused by badly- 
 fitting clothing ! Especial care should be taken to 
 see that the clothiDg fits well round the chest where 
 the buckles meet. A full suit of kerseymere, including 
 hood, quarter-sheet, pad, roller, and fillet strings, can 
 be bought for £4, 4s. Initials will be extra. The 
 underclothing should consist of ordinary fawn striped 
 
104 HUNTING 
 
 rugs, guaranteed to be all luool, and weighing about 
 8 lbs. These are sold at 2s. per lb. The groom must 
 use his own discretion in regard to the amount of 
 clothing, but it is never necessary, even during the 
 hardest frost, to use more than three rugs. Of course 
 especial care should be taken to see that horses are 
 well clothed after clipping or singeing, at which time 
 they are likely to contract colds, and always the 
 clothing should be carefully adjusted, and not thrown 
 on in a slovenly fashion. 
 
 The head-stalls should be of broad, strong leather, 
 with brass mountings, and with no other materials 
 about them, such as brow bands of white enamelled 
 leather. The latter soon crack, and even when new 
 have not, in our opinion, a sportsmanlike appearance. 
 A good average price is 7s. 6d. The lead-lines should 
 be of strong leather, and cost between 4s, and 5s. ; 
 the logs cost Is. Many people prefer chain lead-lines, 
 and they are almost universally used in cavalry stables, 
 but we hold the same objections for the same reasons 
 to chain lead-lines as we do to chain pillar reins ; the 
 noise may not affect cavalry chargers, but we are sure 
 that it affects nervous hunters. 
 
 The saddle-room must be adjacent to the stable, 
 and, like the stable, warm and dry. As a rule, it is 
 kept too warm, and for that reason we prefer a stove 
 to an open fire. The inner walls should be lined like 
 those of the stable. 
 
 The necessary saddle-room fixtures are as follows : — 
 
 1. Backs on which bridles should be kept sepa- 
 rately, and protected from dust by holland 
 curtains. 
 
STABLES AND STABLE MANAGEMENT 105 
 
 2. A case with glass doors in which to keep 
 
 spare bits and stirrup-irons. 
 
 3. One, or more, saddle racks, slung from the 
 
 ceiling, which, when lowered, become saddle 
 horses. Those patented by Messrs Mus- 
 grave, of Bond Street, and invented by 
 Major Fisher, are the best. We recom- 
 mend these racks in preference to the 
 wall racks commonly used, as they keep the 
 saddles constantly in view, and prevent 
 any damage from damp or vermin. 
 
 4. A few movable shelves which can be easily 
 
 cleaned. 
 
 5. Two cupboards : one large for ordinary use, 
 
 and one small for medicines and drugs. 
 
 6. A plain deal table, a bench, a short pair of 
 
 steps, one or two chairs. All furniture 
 should be made of wood only, so that it can 
 be easily scrubbed. 
 
 7. A bar, with hooks upon it, slung from the 
 
 roof, on which to clean bridles. 
 
 8. A large chest, for spare horse-clothing. 
 
 Where the forage loft is over the stable, there is 
 generally a groom's room over the saddle-room. This 
 room should be comfortably furnished, on the principle 
 that a good groom is worthy of a good lodging. Besides, 
 the greater the home comforts of the groom, the less 
 will be the attraction of the ale-house. 
 
 There are few things which present more difficulty 
 
106 HUNTING 
 
 to the novice than the choice of saddlery. We will 
 begin with the choice of a saddle. Every saddler pro- 
 fesses to be able to make a good saddle, but not one in 
 a hundred can act up to his profession. The best 
 judge in England is unable to tell a good saddle at 
 sight. He can give an opinion on the shape and the 
 quality of the leather, but the "tree," which is the 
 foundation of the saddle, is hidden from view. Now, 
 the manufacture of the " tree " requires the greatest 
 skill, and the lightest and strongest wood. Hence, it 
 is impossible to get a new good saddle at a low figure, 
 and a bad saddle should never be in a gentleman's 
 saddle-room. Let us for a moment examine the struc- 
 ture of a " tree." There are four parts, viz. the two side 
 boards, the pommel, and the cantle, and the whole 
 must be so fitted together as to follow the outline of 
 the horse's back as closely as possible. Now, in order 
 that there should be no cross-grain, but that the grain 
 should run true throughout, it is necessary that the 
 tree should be made of several pieces of wood dove- 
 tailed into one another, so scientifically that there 
 should be no cross-grain, for cross-grain causes weak- 
 ness. Then pieces of metal, called the front and back 
 arches, are closely riveted to the pommel and cantle, 
 and the bars for the stirrups are riveted to the side 
 boards. Then the wood is covered with a coating^ of 
 canvas and glue, and the tree is complete. In a recent 
 law case it came out in the evidence that a good tree- 
 maker can easily earn from £3 to £4 a week. Hence 
 the impossibility of getting a good saddle at a low 
 figure is apparent. From £5, 10s. to £6 is a fair price 
 for a thoroughly well-made saddle for a gentleman; 
 
STABLES AND STABLE MANAGEMENT 107 
 
 ladies' saddles are far more expensive, some London 
 firms charging from £13, 13s. to £14, 14s. But in 
 either case, if economy be an object, it is better to buy 
 a second-hand saddle made by a good firm, than a new 
 saddle made by an unknown one. 
 
 Now, it is obvious that the nearer a man is to his 
 horse, the firmer will be his seat in the saddle. The 
 connection between man and horse should be as close 
 as possible, so long as there is sufficient stuffing 
 between the inside of the tree and the back of the 
 horse. For every imaginable reason there should be 
 as little on a horse in the shape either of saddle 
 or bridle as is compatible with the comfort of the 
 rider. Of course, a big, stout man, with round thighs, 
 requires a larger and a more deeply-cut saddle than a 
 thin man. If it be possible, it is best for a man to be 
 measured for his saddle. 
 
 We shall not enter into a discussion regarding the 
 relative merits of " knee-rolls," and " plain fiaps." We 
 prefer the latter, for they look smarter, and are to us 
 more comfortable than the knee - rolls ; but if a man 
 has been accustomed to ride with knee-rolls he will 
 miss their support at first over a drop-fence. How- 
 ever, he must use his own judgment as to whether or 
 not he sacrifices comfort to appearance. In the case 
 of a man with round thighs, who is naturally obliged 
 to ride with short stirrups, perhaps knee-rolls are a 
 necessity. But then no man cares to confess that he 
 has round thighs. 
 
 In regard to girths, it is only sufficient to say that 
 there should be a finger's breadth between the girth 
 and the horse. If the rider dismounts at the meet — 
 
108 HUNTING 
 
 which we advise him to do — or has had his horse sent 
 on, he should look to his girths, as many horses blow 
 themselves out when they are being girthed, to prevent 
 the groom girthing them too tightly. A man never 
 looks so foolish as when he is attempting to mount- 
 a horse and the saddle slips round. 
 
 Stirrup-irons should fit the foot. If too large, the 
 foot may slip through them ; if too small, the foot may 
 become wedged ; in either case the rider is apt to be 
 dragged in the event of a fall. There are many kinds 
 of safety stirrup-irons ; but, except for ladies, we fail 
 to see their utility. The rider should always see that 
 his stirrup -bars, from which hang the leathers, are 
 doion, and not fastened. 
 
 The use of breast-plates has now become antiquated, 
 for the reason that a horse should have nothing 
 superfluous about him. Besides, if a horse has been 
 carefully saddled and girthed, there should be no risk 
 of the saddle slipping back. 
 
 In regard to side saddles, it is only necessary to say 
 that the side saddle should fit the horse, if possible, 
 better than a gentleman's saddle. Also, in every case, 
 a lady should be measured for her saddle, for if the 
 saddle be too big she will slip about in it ; if too small, 
 she is forced back over the cantle with discomfort to 
 herself and her horse. The saddle should be straight- 
 seated, with backstays, for the best horsewomen are 
 apt to give their saddles an occasional side twist, with 
 the probable result of a sore back. As most ladies rise 
 sideways in the saddle, and not truly forwards, the 
 backstays are necessary. If ladies would only re- 
 member to keep their shoulders square to the front, 
 
STABLES AND STABLE MANAGEMENT 109 
 
 and their elbows close to their sides, and their feet fiat 
 to the sides of their horses, they would never cause sore 
 backs. Unfortunately, as a rule, they have either 
 forgotten, or never learned to do this. We believe in 
 patent safety stirrups for ladies, as everything should 
 be done which can be done to avert an accident, or to 
 lessen the danger of one. 
 
 The bridle should be as simple as is compatible with 
 strength, and be entirely free from superfluous orna- 
 ment. ISTothing looks worse than a coloured brow- 
 band. We have already stated that in buying a horse 
 it is advisable to discover what bit he has been ridden 
 in, for the number of bits is legion, and a man may 
 buy all the contents of a saddler's shop and then not 
 get the bit which is best suitable to the horse. As a 
 rule, the simpler the bit the better, and as the novice 
 will hardly be likely to buy a confirmed " puller " on 
 which to make his first essay in riding to hounds, we 
 advise him not to be tempted into buying fancy bits. 
 Our experience is that, in nine cases out of ten, they 
 are more apt to spoil a horse's mouth than improve it. 
 The simplest bits are : 
 
 1. Snaffle. 
 
 2. Double snaffle. 
 
 3. Ordinary bit and bridoon. 
 
 4. Pelham. 
 
 If a horse won't go easily in one or other of these, 
 his owner had better get rid of him. Of these, the 
 snaffle is the lightest, but it is hardly safe to ride a 
 hot-blooded horse in one alone, though, undoubtedly, 
 
110 HUNTING 
 
 it is the best bridle for a temperate horse, as it neither 
 fidgets him nor hurts his mouth. The double snaffle is 
 simply two snaffles with a single rein attached to each. 
 This bridle is of great advantage to the young rider 
 in cases where the single snaffle is not sufficient, for it 
 takes long experience before one learns how to use a 
 curb properly, and the novice may feel thankful if the 
 experience is not gained at the cost of many falls, for 
 the injudicious use of the curb while jumping is very 
 apt to cause a horse to make a mistake. The ordinary 
 bit and bridoon consists of a steel mouthpiece, with an 
 arch, called the " port," rising up in the centre, and the 
 higher the " port," the more severe is the bit. At each 
 end of the mouthpiece are welded on the shanks or 
 cheeks, to the upper ends of whicli are sewn the head- 
 piece, and to rings in the lowxr ends are fastened the 
 reins, while on the upper ends are hooks for the curb- 
 chain, which can be tightened or loosened, according 
 to the temperament of the horse. The Pelham has 
 the mouthpiece of an ordinary snaffle instead of the 
 fixed bar with " port " of the bit, and the shanks 
 with curb-chain of the bit. Thus it is lighter than 
 the ordinary bit, and more powerful than a snaffle 
 or a double snaffle, owing to the curb - chain. 
 Where curb-chains are used a curb-save and a lip- 
 strap should also be used ; the former prevents the 
 links of the chain cutting the horse's jaw, and the 
 latter prevents a horse tossing the bit up over his 
 nose. 
 
 It will be seen that the action of the four bits above 
 described is simple. Most of the fancy bits are com- 
 binations of the above, contrived for horses possessing 
 
STABLES AND STABLE MANAGEMENT 111 
 
 exceptional peculiarities in their mouths. Unless the 
 former owner has used one, we do not recommend the 
 purchaser to do so. 
 
 We may add that for cleaning the leather of saddlery, 
 common yellow household soap should be used, and 
 not soft soap nor any of the countless concoctions sold 
 by saddlers for the purpose. It may be argued that 
 we are severe upon saddlers. We are justly severe 
 upon local saddlers, whose goods are generally made to 
 be sold, not to be used. The master should tell both 
 the groom and the saddler that he forbids the latter 
 giving the former any commission on the saddlery bill, 
 on pain of withdrawing his custom and dismissing the 
 groom ; for these commissions are a direct encourage- 
 ment to the groom to cheat his master. 
 
 We must now consider the important point of forage 
 for the corn bill is necessarily one of the largest items 
 in stabling expenses. We think it the most convenient 
 plan to divide forage as follows : 
 
 1. Hay. 
 
 2. Oats. 
 
 3. Straw. 
 
 4. Bran. 
 
 5. Beans, peas. 
 
 6. Linseed. 
 
 7. Carrots and green forage, etc. 
 
 1. Hay should be natural hay in good condition, 
 and, at least, be six months, if possible twelve, 
 months old before it is given to hunters. 
 It is sometimes sold by the load, some- 
 
112 HUNTING 
 
 times by the ton. The measures are 
 these — 
 
 A truss of old hay = 56 lbs. 
 
 A load of old hay = 36 trusses or 18 cwt. 
 
 A ton of old hay = 40 trusses. 
 
 The price varies, so the purchaser should 
 consult the corn market quotations in his 
 daily paper, but the average price is £5 per ton. 
 The hay should be of a light colour, as nearly 
 -as possible the colour which it was when first 
 stacked, and not a rich blackish-brown colour. 
 The latter colour denotes that the hay has 
 been overheated. It should contain a fair 
 mixture of grasses and flowers, smell sweet, 
 and its texture should be soft, not brittle. 
 A hunter in condition should be allow^ed 
 ten pounds per diem, or even less, according 
 to the work he is doing, but its total allow- 
 ance of hay and oats should be twenty-two 
 pounds. Hay should be stored in the centre 
 of the loft, and not against the walls, for if 
 stored against the walls it is apt to get hot 
 and damp, and lose condition. 
 
 2. Oats. — Black oats, whether English or foreign, are 
 preferable to white oats. A few grey oats 
 are grown in England which are better than 
 either the black or white, but they are both 
 difficult to procure and more expensive. Oats 
 are sold by the quarter, and the measures 
 are these — 
 
STABLES AND STABLE MANAGEMENT 113 
 
 40 lbs. = 1 bushel. 
 
 4 bushels or 160 lbs. = l sack. 
 
 2 sacks, or 8 bushels, or 320 lbs. = 1 quarter. 
 
 Oats should be crisp and floury, and have a 
 milky taste, and the larger they are the 
 better. Sound second season oats fetch about 
 £1 per quarter. As already stated, a hunter 
 should be allowed ten pounds, or even less, 
 per diem. 
 
 3. Straiv. — Wheat straw should, if possible, be used 
 
 for bedding. Unfortunately, owing to the 
 decrease in English wheat-growing, it is 
 expensive. The measures are as follows — 
 
 1 truss = 36 lbs. 
 
 36 trusses = 1 load or 11 cwt. 2 qrs. 8 lbs. 
 
 ■ It is sometimes sold by the load, sometimes 
 by the ton. The average price is 60s. to 65s. 
 for good wheat straw. The allowance should 
 be eight pounds per diem for a stall or loose 
 box, at the least. 
 
 4. Bran is chiefly used for mashes and poultices. 
 
 It must be' clean, and can be obtained from 
 any miller at Is. per bushel. 
 
 5. Beans should be old and hard and given to horses 
 
 crushed, and in small quantities. A double 
 handful is amply sufiicient per diem, and 
 they should never be given for a longer 
 period than a week at a time. Beans and 
 white peas are only given to horses in low 
 H 
 
114 HUNTING 
 
 condition as a stimulant. They cost about 
 5s. 6d. per bushel. 
 
 6. Linseed must be carefully cooked for ten or twelve 
 
 hours before it is given to horses. Taken 
 as a mash, it is an invaluable tonic to hunters 
 after a long day. 
 
 7, Carrots and green food, etc. — Two white carrots 
 
 per diem, cut lengthwise, are sufficient for a 
 horse. They are a luxury to him, not a 
 necessity. Their price is about 40s. to 45s. 
 per ton. During the hunting season green 
 food must be used very sparingly, and only 
 when a horse requires a mild purgative. 
 Indeed, a hunter in sound condition never 
 requires it. Oatmeal for gruel must of course 
 be kept. As it is advisable to give a horse 
 gruel on his way home from hunting, the 
 master should know how to make it. Place 
 two double handfuls of oatmeal in a bucket, 
 pour boiling water over it, and stir it till it 
 becomes a thick cream, then pour sufficient 
 cold water over it to reduce it to a blood heat. 
 Some men add gin or ale, either of which 
 acts as a restorative if the horse will take it. 
 
 Every stable should possess a good stable cat, to destroy 
 or scare away mice. Also, there is a strong friendship 
 between a horse and a cat. We have seen a vicious 
 horse playing with a kitten in its manger, like a little 
 girl in the nursery playing with her first puppy. Mice 
 are most destructive to forage, so a cat is a necessity ; 
 
STABLES AND STABLE MANAGEMENT 115 
 
 for the use of poisons should be avoided, and though 
 poisons destroy, they do not scare away mice. 
 
 The knowledge of the proper management of a stable 
 can only be gained after long and very often bitter 
 experience. Some masters never gain it, but we find, 
 as a rule, that these are men not born to command, and 
 therefore suffer themselves to be persuaded in all things 
 by their grooms. The result is that the master spoils 
 the groom, and the groom spoils the horse. To the tyro 
 we trust that the following maxims will be found to be 
 of assistance : 
 
 1. How to tell if a horse is vjell groomed. — Eub the 
 hand firmly over the skin of the body. If 
 the slightest particle of dirt, scurf, or grease 
 adheres to the hand, the horse has not been 
 properly groomed, and the groom should be 
 ordered to groom him again. Of course the 
 groom will make excuses, but his excuses are 
 lies, and he knows them to be lies. The 
 mane must be pulled from the middle with 
 a comb, not with a drag ; in fact a mane drag 
 should never be in a gentleman's saddle-room. 
 It is very difficult to comb a mane properly 
 without giving pain to the horse. Thinning 
 a mane is more difficult; it should be done 
 by slow degrees, only a few hairs per diem 
 being removed. The hocks, heels, and ears 
 are the parts most often neglected, so the 
 master would do well to constantly examine 
 these. Dirty heels produce "thrush," or 
 disease of the frog of the foot, which is a 
 
116 HUNTING 
 
 disgrace to any groom. While grooming, the 
 man should stand back so as to groom with 
 a straight arm, which is less exertion to him 
 and produces a better effect on the horse. 
 If the horse is sweating, wisping with dry 
 straw is better than rubbing. We should 
 add in justice to grooms that some horses are 
 not only difficult but dangerous to groom. If 
 a horse is given to " savaging," i.e. trying to 
 bite while he is being groomed, the only thing 
 is to muzzle him, for a bite from a horse is 
 a serious matter. But a horse that savages 
 while being groomed is sure to have been 
 ill-treated at some time of his life. 
 
 2. Kow hunters should he exercised. — Hunters should 
 always be exercised on turf, and, if possible, in 
 a field adjacent to the stables. If the master 
 does not possess such a field, he can generally 
 hire the right to exercise in a field from a 
 neighbouring farmer for a very trifling sum. 
 Exercising on the road knocks horses' legs 
 about, and is apt to make them fill, besides 
 placing temptation before the grooms. The 
 exercising bridle and saddle should be strong, 
 and both reins of the bridle sewn on to 
 the snaffle rings. A groom should never be 
 allowed to exercise, or even to take a horse to 
 the blacksmith, without using the saddle. He 
 dislikes the extra trouble, but the habit of 
 riding without a saddle is dangerous, and 
 is uncomfortable to both horse and man. 
 
STABLES AND STABLE MANAGEMENT 117 
 
 Hunters require from two to three hours' 
 steady, continuous exercise per diem at the 
 walk, with occasional intervals of about 
 fifteen minutes at a jog-trot, not exceeding 
 six miles an hour. After a day's hunting, 
 half-an-hour's walking exercise to take away 
 the stiffness is sufficient ; before a day's hunt- 
 ing, a gallop is often advisable. When a 
 horse is led at exercise, the groom who is 
 riding the second horse should constantly 
 chanoje the leading side, or the mouth of the 
 led horse will become harder on the one side 
 than the other. Horses should be taken 
 out to exercise as soon after breakfast as 
 possible. 
 
 Treatment of the hunter after hu7iting. — Eemove 
 bridle and put on head-stall and slacken the 
 girths, but leave on the saddle till the last 
 moment. Then give him a bucket of gruel. 
 Brush off the dirt, and sponge his nostrils 
 and dock. Use no other water for washing 
 purposes. Throw a rug over him and give 
 him his linseed mash, which should be 
 ready. Eemove saddle, and groom with dry 
 wisp of straw. Put on night- clothing. Band- 
 age legs with dry bandages after hand-rubbing 
 them. (If the legs are liable to fill, soak 
 bandages in vinegar and water, half and half.) 
 Put him in loose box, or improvised loose 
 box, as he will probably want to roll, and 
 feed with corn and hay. N.B, — While hand- 
 
118 HUNTING 
 
 rubbing the legs look out for thorns, etc. 
 Many hunting men contrive to visit their 
 hunters in the evening after hunting. It is 
 but common kindness to see how the horse 
 has borne the fatigue of the day. 
 
 4. Farriery. — From the poet's point of view, the 
 village blacksmith is so replete with pastoral 
 morality as to deserve to live in a better 
 sphere than on this wicked earth; from the 
 point of view of the owner of hunters, he 
 is an ignorant man, who does not know his 
 trade, while the village forge is often a 
 favourite lounge for grooms, in which to waste 
 their time, and, not improbably, bet and 
 drink. The village blacksmith's idea of shoe- 
 ing is to cut a horse's hoof to fit his shoe, 
 instead of making a shoe to fit the horse's 
 hoof. It is impossible for us to examine the 
 system of farriery ; volumes have been already 
 written upon the subject. We can only say 
 that most veterinary surgeons have a forge, 
 and it is far better to send hunters to one 
 of these forges than to allow them to be ex- 
 perimented upon by the local blacksmith. 
 If it should be necessary to patronise the 
 blacksmith's forge, the groom should watch 
 the smith throughout the whole of the opera- 
 tion. He can, at least, warn him against 
 pricking the horse, or paring off too much 
 of the horn. The groom should always 
 examine a horse's shoes carefully on the day 
 
STABLES AND STABLE MANAGEMENT 119 
 
 before hunting. As there are various patent 
 shoes, it is best, when purchasing a hunter, to 
 ask the vendor what shoe the horse has 
 been in the habit of wearing, for a sudden 
 change in the nature of the shoe is apt to 
 cause lameness. 
 
 In concluding this chapter, we must apologise for 
 the terse manner in which we have made our remarks. 
 But the hints which we have felt it to be necessary 
 to give to the inexperienced owner of hunters are so 
 many, and our space is so confined, that we must beg 
 the forgiveness of the reader, if we have sacrificed 
 literary style to utility of information. It has been 
 our experience that many men, at the outset of their 
 hunting careers, have been deceived by those to whose 
 advantage it was to deceive them. This experience 
 has been our reason for entering minutely into financial 
 details. Besides, men who have kept horses all their 
 lives constantly ask us what their corn bills and 
 saddlery bills ought to be, so we sincerely hope that 
 the statistics which we have given may enable them 
 to gain some practical knowledge. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 GROOMS. 
 
 It is hardly necessary for us to state that a groom 
 must be sober and honest. Drunkenness or dishonesty 
 should be punished with instant dismissal, and never 
 under any circumstances be condoned. We presume 
 that no sane man would knowingly keep a thief in his 
 employ, but many masters are induced to pardon 
 drunkenness, so that our words "instant dismissal" 
 may seem unnecessarily severe. Now, a drunken 
 groom will not only be careless and untidy, but he 
 will have no affection for the horses under his charge, 
 and take no pride in their appearance. One might as 
 well employ a drunken woman as a nurse for one's 
 children, as employ a drunken man to take charge of 
 one's horses. Besides, anybody who reads the police 
 court reports knows that drunkenness whilst in charge 
 of horses is a criminal offence. Even if the master 
 elects to risk the welfare of his horses by condoning 
 the offence, he has no right to risk the lives and 
 property of his fellow-creatures ; if he does, sooner or 
 later he will have to pay the penalty. The groom will 
 ride over a child, or knock down an old woman, then 
 woe betide the master, if it be proved that he had 
 previous knowledge of his servant's habits. Again, a 
 
 120 
 
GROOMS 121 
 
 sot is invariably cruel, and cruelty should never be 
 allowed for one moment in a stable. 
 
 For the novice whose stable is on a limited scale — 
 say two hunters and a dogcart horse or pony — one 
 groom and a stable lad should be sufficient. In 
 calculating the number of men required in a large 
 stable, regard must be had to the amount of carriage 
 work. But as we have already stated, it is our duty 
 to speak only of the hunting department of the stable. 
 Carefulness, cleanliness, and tidiness are the first three 
 qualities essential to a good groom. Cleverness and 
 horsemanship are secondary considerations, and very 
 often of doubtful advantage to the master. A very 
 clever groom is fond of physicking horses on his own 
 responsibility, while a careful groom by his care avoids 
 the constant need of physic. Many masters will not 
 allow a groom to physic a horse without first obtaining 
 their consent, which, in our opinion, is a good plan, as 
 a little veterinary knowledge is a dangerous thing to 
 horses. Unless a man keeps young, high-blooded horses, 
 which the novice is hardly likely to do, a first-rate 
 horseman is of no advantage, while at exercise, riding 
 to covert, or acting as second horseman, he will rarely 
 be able to resist the temptation to lark. It is difficult 
 to blame him, for, to a good rider on a good horse, the 
 temptation to jump is wellnigh irresistible. Still, it 
 is not the duty of the groom to jump. We have often 
 heard a man complain that his second horse is not 
 fresh ; nor is he likely to be, if the second horseman 
 has been larking him over fences all the morning. 
 
 Assuming that our previous hints on grooming have 
 been of use, we advise the novice, before definitely 
 
122 HUNTING 
 
 engaging a groom, to first watcli him groom his horse. 
 At all events, he will be able to judge if he does his 
 work thoroughly, and he ought to be able to form an 
 opinion as to whether he is kind to his horses or the 
 reverse. There are many degrees of conduct between 
 kindness and cruelty. For example, a hasty blow is 
 often the result of a hasty temper, not of cruelty. 
 Horses can be as aggravating as human beings when 
 they choose. We advise the master to mark particularly 
 how the new groom grooms the ears, hocks, and heels. 
 If he grooms these thoroughly he knoivs his business 
 and it will be the master's duty to see that he performs 
 it. 
 
 It must be borne in mind that a careless master 
 makes a careless groom, and that the more personal 
 supervision a master gives to his stable, the better 
 will the groom do his work. A good groom will work 
 more thoroughly if he knows that his master appreciates 
 his work ; it is only untrustworthy grooms who object 
 to the constant and unexpected presence of the master 
 in the stable, and it is best to get rid of such men as 
 soon as possible. ISTor do we consider it to be beneath 
 the dignity of any gentleman to take off his coat, and 
 show the groom how he wants certain things done, e.g. 
 the cutting of a horse's tail, or the pulling of his mane 
 — that is, if he himself knows, for these operations are 
 not to be attempted by any novice. 
 
 In regard to wages, a groom for two horses, and a 
 dogcart horse or pony, will ask from 22s. to 25s. a 
 week if an outdoor man. He is, in our opinion, worth 
 the 25s., if, in addition to grooming his horses and 
 cleaning his harness well, he turns out his carriage and 
 
GROOMS 123 
 
 himself smartly. Indeed, a man who is smart in his 
 own personal appearance will generally see that his 
 stable, horses, harness, and carriage are in smart condi- 
 tion. When we see an unshaven groom with dirty 
 boots we should know that his stable and horses would 
 also be dirty. It is not permissible for any gentleman's 
 servant to wear a moustache. It is a question admit- 
 ting of much doubt as to whether or not the master 
 should provide the groom with stable clothes. We 
 think that a groom in livery should be provided with 
 a suit of stable clothes twice a year, as he can then 
 have no excuse for his appearance being untidy during 
 his working hours. It is far from pleasant to take 
 guests, especially ladies, into the stable, and find the 
 groom in worn and shabby clothes. The novice must 
 remember that though stable clothes are the property 
 of the groom, liveries, including breeches and boots, are 
 the property of the master ; still it is wisest to impress 
 this fact upon the groom when he is engaged. Some 
 gentlemen will not allow their grooms to remove their 
 stable clothes upon leaving their employ. But these 
 are matters for the master to determine for himself, so 
 long as he makes the arrangement with the groom 
 clear beforehand. 
 
 If the groom is required to act as second horse- 
 man his riding weight should never exceed 9J 
 stone, and the less the better. In any case it is 
 desirable that his riding weight should not exceed 
 10 stone, as he has to exercise horses and ride them 
 to covert. If it can be managed, it is best for the 
 master to see him scale before engaging him, for all 
 riders — both masters and men — are apt to pervert the 
 
124 HUNTING 
 
 truth in regard to their weight. The age of a groom 
 and whether he be married or single are matters which 
 a man must decide for himself. We recommend him 
 not to engage a married man unless he has a lodge or 
 cottage on, or immediately adjacent to, his property, 
 for day and night the groom should be as near to his 
 horses as possible. 
 
 Allusion has already been made to the stable lad 
 in a three horse establishment. A smart lad from the 
 village school, willing to learn, will serve the purpose, 
 if the groom is willing to teach him. We never knew 
 or heard of a groom who was unwilling to teach a 
 willing pupil. On the contrary, the usual complaint 
 against a good groom is that he is too stern a school- 
 master; but the stable lad may bear this in mind, 
 that the sterner the groom is under whom he serves 
 his apprenticeship, the better groom he himself will be 
 in his after days. We once had a complaint from a 
 lad that he had been kept in the saddle-room cleaning 
 harness till eleven o'clock at night, because he had not 
 cleaned it properly in the first instance. " Was the 
 groom there all the time?" we asked. "Yes, sir." 
 " Then he was taking more trouble in teaching you 
 than you were in cleaning the harness ; you ought to 
 be extremely grateful to him. Go away, and learn to 
 do your work properly." Juvenile nature may not 
 like such stern lessons, we admit, but still juvenile 
 nature is the better for them. Of course a groom 
 should never bully a lad, but a man who is kind 
 to dumb creatures is not likely to be cruel to a human 
 being. 
 
 "Wanted — A Geoom." Such is the advertisment 
 
GROOMS 125 
 
 which constantly appears in metropolitan and pro- 
 vincial newspapers with such regularity that it would 
 appear that a good groom is as rare as the dodo. A 
 writer in The Illustrated SjJorting and Dramatic Neios 
 states that a good groom should have served five 
 years in a racing stable, five years in a first-rate 
 hunting stable, and two years as factotum to a dealer. 
 Personally, we should object to engaging a groom 
 either out of a racing stable or out of a dealer's stable, 
 as we do not wish to glean our knowledge of the turf 
 from our groom. Nor do we wish him to initiate us 
 into the mysteries of horse-coping. We want a man 
 to groom our horses, and though we cannot undertake 
 to engage such a man for the novice, we trust that the 
 foregoing hints will enable him to find a man, who at 
 least will not ruin his horses. 
 
CHAPTEE lY. 
 
 HUNTING CLOTHES. 
 
 " Buckskin's the only wear fit for the saddle, 
 Hats for Hyde Park, but a cap for the chase ; 
 In tops of black leather let fishermen paddle, 
 The calves of a fox-hunter white ones encase." 
 
 — Egerton Warburton. 
 
 Tempora mutantur. The cap now has become almost as 
 extinct as the dodo, and is seldom worn except by the 
 M.F.H. and the Hunt servants. In fact anybody now 
 wearing a cap would be taken by the stranger for a 
 Hunt servant, so that many masters of hounds object 
 to see their followers wearing the velvet cap. On one 
 occasion, when the question of the members of his 
 Hunt wearing caps was mooted to a well - known 
 M.F.H., he replied : " Well, gentlemen, there is no law 
 to prevent you wearing velvet caps if you like to do 
 so; only if you do I shall put my men into white 
 hats." The cap is popularly supposed to have been 
 abolished owing to the fatal accident which happened 
 to the Marquis of Waterford, whose death was supposed 
 to be due to his having worn a cap, and the theory 
 was established that a man's neck is safer in a hat 
 than a cap. This is a pleasant reflection for Hunt 
 
 126 
 
HUNTING CLOTHES 127 
 
 servants, but we do not think that the theory has any 
 reasonable basis. At all events, poor " Bay " Middleton 
 was wearing a high hat when he broke his neck. 
 Again, buckskin breeches have gone out of fashion for 
 many reasons. In the first place, they are extremely 
 difficult to clean, taking a great amount of time and 
 trouble and no small amount of knowledge. In the 
 second place, they are far more expensive than white 
 cords, since it takes two hides to make one pair of 
 breeches, and the hides themselves are becoming more 
 expensive every year. In the third place, we do not 
 think that they are as comfortable as cords, and in 
 the present day hunting men dress more with a 
 view to comfort than to smartness. Even the Melton 
 Mowbray man, who pays 7s. 6d. to have his breeches 
 sent up to London to be cleaned, would hardly 
 care to wear the buttoned-up swallow-tail coat in 
 which our forefathers used to ride. It was a smart 
 garment certainly, but on a wet day afforded no pro- 
 tection to the thighs, and at the best of times was 
 cold and comfortless. We admire the look of it in 
 old sporting prints in the same way as we admire 
 Egerton Warburton's verses, but admiration is not 
 succeeded by imitation. 
 
 It is a curious fact that many men who are careless 
 and even slovenly in regard to their ordinary clothes, take 
 care to be as smart and sportsmanlike in the hunting- 
 field as tailors, breeches-makers, and bootmakers can 
 make them. This may seem an anomaly, but really it 
 is only in accordance with the eternal fitness of things ; 
 for the man who has taken immense trouble over the 
 purchase of his hunters, and over everything apper 
 
128 HUNTING 
 
 taining to his stable, is not likely, if we may use a 
 homely phrase, " to spoil the ship for want of a ha'porth 
 of tar," by disregarding his own attire. He takes as 
 his motto, " The man should be as well groomed as his 
 horse." Often, however, he does not know how to 
 groom himself as well as his groom knows how to 
 groom his horse. He may try to do his best, but 
 ignorance, bad taste, or false economy steps in, and 
 the result is disastrous or ludicrous, or both. The 
 truth is that nobody but a sporting tailor can make 
 hunting clothes, and vice versa^ a sporting tailor cannot 
 make everyday clothes. There can be no better evidence 
 of this truth than the fact that West End tailors con- 
 stantly recommend their customers to breeches-makers. 
 Therefore, the novice should go to a first-rate London 
 maker for his breeches ; above everything, he should 
 never trust to local talent. 
 
 Let us commence with the breeches, because they 
 are in our opinion the most important garment in a 
 man's hunting "kit," and a pair of really well-cut 
 breeches is probably the scarcest article of attire in a 
 man's wardrobe. Breeches which fit properly, more 
 especially about the knee, always appear to us to 
 enable a man to have a firmer seat in the saddle, while 
 breeches which wrinkle on the inside muscles of the 
 knee, chafe the flesh, and become extremely painful 
 after the wearer has been a few hours in the pigskin. 
 Experto crede, we remember once being unexpectedly 
 offered a mount overnight while staying in a country 
 house, and being compelled to borrow a pair of breeches 
 from our host. We forgot our discomfort during the 
 excitement of the run, but the ride home was agony, 
 
HUNTING CLOTHES 129 
 
 and the insides of our knees and thighs were like raw 
 beefsteak. On another occasion in our experience, a 
 gentleman rider was asked on the course to ride a horse 
 in a certain steeplechase, and had to borrow a pair of 
 breeches, with the result that his legs were so chafed 
 that he was unable to ride again in a race for over two 
 weeks. Hence the peril and inconvenience of ill-fitting 
 breeches. In regard to the material, since we have 
 discarded buckskins, white silk cords are preferable to 
 anything else, since they are easily cleaned, wear welL 
 look well, and are comfortable. White cotton cords are 
 lighter, but they do not wear well, and we do not 
 recommend them to the novice to whom the weight of 
 a few pounds in his kit should be a matter of little 
 importance. In some hunts it is the fashion to wear 
 drab breeches, but one thing is certain, white breeches 
 are never wrong. There are numerous other kinds of 
 breeches which can be worn when riding in mufti, i.e. 
 when riding without pink or black coat and top hat ; 
 but there can be little doubt that the correct mufti 
 costume is a single-breasted frock, or cut-away tail, 
 drab box-cloth coat, white cords, and patent leather 
 jack boots, surmounted by a low, black hat. Such a 
 "get-up" is both neat and sportsmanlike, and does not 
 attract invidious attention. We caution our readers 
 against brown cords, as they are extremely difficult to 
 clean, and soon lose their colour, nor do we like their 
 appearance, but that, of course, is only a matter of 
 opinion. In regard to breeches-makers, Messrs Tautz 
 and Messrs Hammond have the reputation of being 
 the two best makers in the world. Of course, the 
 prices of both firms are high, but then their work is the 
 
 I 
 
130 HUNTING 
 
 best, and we feel sure that it is more economical in the 
 long run to go to one of them, though there are many 
 other good firms whose prices are not so high. Some 
 men when hunting in mufti prefer to wear breeches 
 and gaiters, in which case a short coat must be w^orn- 
 The advantage of these breeches is that they can be 
 used for ordinary riding, and be worn generally in the 
 country. In wearing gaiters, it must be remembered 
 that the buttons should come straight down the centre 
 of the leg, and not at the side, so as to correspond 
 exactly with the buttons of the breeches. There is a 
 slight hole in a man's leg beneath the knee-cap, which, 
 to use the language of one of the best men who ever 
 rode to hounds, was placed there by Providence for the 
 top button of the breeches to rest in, and that is the 
 proper position for the top button of the breeches. One 
 final word anent leathers, which some of our readers 
 may think that we have spoken too strongly against : 
 they may be smart in appearance and comfortable in 
 fine weather, but they are miserable wear when wet 
 through, and are conducive on these occasions to severe 
 colds, rheumatism, and other ills. Therefore, we con- 
 demn them, if only for the reason that hunting, and all 
 the accessories of hunting, should be conducive to health. 
 As we have already said, the single-breasted frock 
 or cut-away tail, drab, box- cloth coat is the most correct 
 coat for mufti. Of the two, the single-breasted frock 
 coat is the more fashionable, besides affording more 
 protection to the thighs in cold or rainy weather. The 
 same is the case with pink coats. It is the wiser plan 
 to go to a sporting tailor for a coat than to an ordinary 
 tailor, who is too apt to build it on Hyde Park lines ; 
 
HUNTING CLOTHES 131 
 
 but if the ordinary tailor be patronised, he must be 
 told to make the sleeves an inch or even an inch and 
 a half longer than in a morning coat, so that they 
 come well over the wrists, and to make the coat 
 wider than usual in the hips and under the arm-pits. 
 Personally, we are alwa}s measured for our eoat on 
 a dummy hack, such as most tailors possess. The 
 same advice applies in the case of the short coat 
 worn with breeches and gaiters ; for the coat should 
 fit when the wearer is in the saddle, not when he 
 is on the ground, and as the hips are extended in the 
 saddle, the ordinary coat must wrinkle up the back. 
 The art of dressing is to wear the right thing in the 
 right place, and the right coat in the hunting-field is a 
 roomy garment, which allows full play to the limbs. 
 To use a hunting phrase, the coat, like the rest of the 
 "kit," should be pre-eminently workmanlike. 
 
 The essence of a good boot is a happy combination 
 of comfort and shape. Hunting boots, whether jack- 
 boots or top-boots, should be of black patent leather. 
 Brown jack-boots are intended for polo, not for the 
 hunting-field. We need hardly say that top-boots are 
 never worn with mufti, though, as we have seen a 
 man in the hunting-field in white cords, top-boots, a 
 drab jacket, and a velvet cap, it would appear that to 
 some people the most rudimentary advice is necessary. 
 All hunting boots should be kept on trees when not 
 in use, otherwise they will soon get out of shape and 
 crack. Peel has the reputation of being the best 
 maker of hunting boots, though he, like most boot- 
 makers, is apt to sacrifice comfort to style. Few men 
 have what is called a good leg for a boot, which means 
 
132 HUNTING 
 
 a straight leg behind, or an absence of calf. Now the 
 recognised acme of beauty in a boot is that it should 
 be perfectly straight; therefore the fashionable boot- 
 maker, in his anxiety to turn out a perfect boot, turns 
 out one which pinches the wearer's calf. Such a 
 boot is not only uncomfortable, but dangerous. We 
 once saw a first-rate rider tumble off his horse, or, in 
 sporting language, " cut a voluntary," while jumping a 
 very small fence. The reason was that when in the 
 act of jumping, and necessarily pressing his legs closer 
 to his horse, he was suddenly seized with cramp. 
 This man was far too good a rider to make a false 
 excuse for his " voluntary : " so we must warn the 
 novice against allowing his boots to pinch his calves, 
 or the result may be dire disaster. 
 
 Gloves and ties may seem to be trivial articles, but 
 it is in these minor details that the sportsman's know- 
 ledge of dress asserts itself. There is only one hunting 
 tie, namely, that which is a combination of collar and 
 tie, in a single word, a cravat. Strictly speaking, it is 
 a hunting cravat, since it goes round the neck twice. 
 The collar portion may be either stiff or limp, accord- 
 ing to the fancy of the wearer, but the colour should 
 always be white, though they are made in other 
 colours, such as light blue. But the coloured cravat 
 is not only unsportsmanlike, but savours of the livery 
 stable keeper, and the horse-dealer. Indeed, it was 
 once christened "the horse-coping cravat." At first 
 che novice will find no small difficulty in tying his 
 cravat neatly, but perseverance will soon come to his 
 rescue. Our recipe is that, as both ladies and gentle- 
 men wear them he had better persuade a hunting 
 
HUNTING CLOTHES 133 
 
 lady to give him a few lessons. The best gloves that 
 we know of, both for riding and driving purposes, are 
 those made by Sleep, of Oxford Street. This remark 
 applies to both ladies and men, but both ladies and 
 men should have their hunting gloves a size larger 
 than their ordinary gloves, for tight gloves cause cramp 
 in the fingers. 
 
 In regard to hats, whether for ladies or gentlemen, 
 we have little to say, as the shape must be a matter 
 of choice. We believe that White, of Jermyn Street, 
 is one of the best, if not the best man. In cleaning a 
 hat, one should never use oil. The best way to clean 
 a hat is to brush it with a hard brush, dipped in cold 
 water, and then to brush it with a dry soft brush. 
 This maxim applies both to silk hats and low felt 
 hats. 
 
 The whip or hunting-crop should be as light as 
 possible, so long as the handle is sufficiently strong to 
 open gates with. The lash should never be used, except 
 by an experienced man to hounds. 
 
 No man who is not a perfect rider should ever wear 
 spurs. A lady should never wear them, for the reason 
 that she should be mounted on a horse which never 
 needs the spur. Our reason for making such an 
 emphatic statement is that we have witnessed several 
 bad accidents resulting from the injudicious or uncon- 
 scious use of the spur. Thus, a man loses his seat 
 over a fence, and naturally clings to his horse with 
 his spurred heels, thereby unwittingly punishing his 
 horse, who resents the punishment with consequences 
 disastrous to the the rider. Doubtless, a spur finishes 
 a boot, as the saying goes, but if the spur be for 
 
134 HUNTING 
 
 ornament and not for use, then let it be without 
 rowels. 
 
 We must apologise for writing at such length upon 
 the question " what to wear," but, unfortunately, we do 
 not live in the day of Eoman mythology, when 
 
 " fyse deus nudus nudosjuhet ire ministros; 
 Nee satis ad cursus commoda vestis erat." 
 
PAET III. 
 Pkactical Hints. 
 
CHAPTEE I. 
 
 PERSONAL HINTS FOR HUNTING MEN. 
 
 Personal advice is so near akin to rudeness that we 
 approach the subject of this article with more than 
 ordinary diffidence. If a man is told that he ought 
 to train for hunting as he would for rowing or any 
 other athletic pursuit, he invariably replies that he 
 hunts for pleasure, and has no intention of making 
 a toil of his pleasure. To the man who considers it 
 a toil to keep himself in ordinary physical condition 
 there is no rejoinder, for the man who does not 
 deem good health to be one of the blessings of life 
 is beyond the reach of argument. In his case we 
 must paraphrase the proverb, and write, "mens insana 
 in corpore insano" We do not mean to state that the 
 hunting man must train as if he were going to ride 
 a race ; we only say that he ought to be in fairly 
 hard condition. 
 
 It has been asserted that no man can ride across 
 four fields even, over a line of gates, at a hard gallop 
 unless he is in good condition. Experto crede. Let 
 the man who denies the truth of the assertion try 
 the experiment. If he does manage to reach the 
 
 137 
 
138 HUNTING 
 
 end of the fourth field, he will find that his wind is 
 gone, and that he is bumping about on the saddle 
 like a sack of potatoes. Certainly that gallop across 
 the fourth field will have been no pleasure, but 
 rather a toil to him; and, if he has anything the 
 matter with his heart, it may have been dangerous. 
 Yet if he had been sound in wind he would have 
 experienced that keen enjoyment, springing from ting- 
 ling veins and rapid circulation, which only a gallop 
 can give. As it is, he has had about as much fun 
 as. the fat carriage horse of a nervous old lady might 
 be expected to have if he were sent along at racing 
 pace for six furlongs. In hunting it is necessary 
 that the rider as w^ell as the horse should be in 
 condition. 
 
 In these days when people hunt from London and 
 other large towns, it is not surprising to learn that 
 there are many men who never get across a horse 
 except to hunt. Even in the country, where there is 
 less excuse for not taking outdoor exercise, men, 
 whose daily life lies in sedentary pursuits, arrive at 
 covert-side on the opening day in lamentable lack 
 of condition. Such men cannot enjoy their sport, 
 are ridiculous in the eyes of their neighbours, and 
 often meet with nasty falls on account of their own 
 physical weakness. 
 
 Of course, exercise in the saddle is the best training 
 for hunting, as it hardens and strengthens the muscles 
 which we want to use, and, as we have already said, 
 no horse exercise can be better for this purpose than 
 cub-hunting. A man can generally get his morning's 
 
PEBSONAL HINTS FOR HUNTING MEN 139 
 
 cub-Iiunting without any serious interference with 
 the business of the day. Besides, if he can afford 
 the time to hunt, he can afford to be two hours later 
 at his business for a few mornings during the latter 
 half of September and October. If he cannot do 
 this, he should, at least, manage to get a few early 
 canters before breakfast. Even if this is denied to 
 him, as it may be to the man who has to depend for 
 his hunting upon occasional mounts from a friend, 
 he can easily improve his wind by going at a jog 
 trot for a mile before breakfast every morning for a 
 week. He will be astonished at the end of the week 
 to find how much better he feels, and what a different 
 appetite he has for breakfast; and, when he hunts, 
 his heart will not be beating against his ribs after 
 the first two minutes of a gallop. We may be laughed 
 at for inculcating such simple and necessary measures, 
 but it is wonderful how often they are neglected by 
 the novice who has not been taking violent exercise 
 during the summer and early autumn. 
 
 Many people lay much stress on diet, but, if a man 
 be neither a glutton nor a drunkard, we do not think 
 it advisable for him to make much alteration during 
 the hunting season in the diet to which he is accus- 
 tomed, except in regard to his food on the actual 
 day on which he hunts, of which we will say more 
 anon. Sudden changes of diet are only apt to 
 disturb the digestive organs, except so far as they are 
 necessitated by the changes of the climate. For 
 example, it would be absurd for a professional man, 
 who only hunts one day a week, to live on underdone 
 
140 HUNTING 
 
 joints for the other six days, when he has been 
 accustomed to a mixed menu of lighter dishes. He 
 is in reality eating food which he cannot digest, under 
 the idea that it is giving him muscular strength. 
 It gives him dyspepsia, and veritably makes his 
 hunting a burden to him. Many of the old writers 
 on sport dilate to an alarming extent on the question 
 of food. "Stonehenge" confines the hunting-man to 
 weak tea and dry bread for breakfast, presumably 
 on the grounds that a General should starve his 
 own army before leading them into battle. Others 
 treat the hunting-man as if he were a professional 
 jockey compelled to ride a certain weight to an 
 ounce, and even advise him to have every particle 
 of food weighed, and to weigh himself at least once 
 a day. 
 
 Fortunately, the time has passed when athletics and 
 martyrdom were synonymous terms. Now, " plenty of 
 fresh air and what you like to eat and drink" has 
 become the rule. Perhaps the starving advice was 
 necessary when fox-hunters drank two or three bottles 
 of generous port after dinner and swallowed brandy 
 before breakfast. Surtees' description of hunting 
 dinner parties would only meet with contemptuous 
 ridicule if applied to the present day, and are probably 
 exaggerated when applied to the past; still, Mytton 
 was undoubtedly a hero in the hunting-field, and yet 
 "Mmrod," in his "Life of John Mytton," declares 
 that Mytton was drunk for twelve years. If strong 
 diseases require strong cures, then the old writers 
 may have been right in giving the advice which they 
 
PERSONAL HINTS FOR HUNTING MEN 141 
 
 did, but in the age when to get drunk means social 
 ostracism the advice is unnecessary. 
 
 But one of the chief objects of every hunting man 
 is to be able to ride a light weight, and he regards 
 any adipose food with alarm. Ladies do not forget 
 their ages nearly as often as hunting men forget their 
 weights, and the good-natured man who does not 
 object to mount his friends would do well to keep 
 a weighing machine on the premises. As we do not 
 pretend to any medical science, we do not wish to 
 write a treatise on banting, but confine ourselves to 
 stating that in the majority of cases it is our firm 
 belief that it is liquid, more especially effervescing 
 liquid, which generates fatty substance. We do not 
 suggest abstinence from or any serious diminution of 
 alcohol, but we do protest against the present ex- 
 cessive use of mineral waters. Let the hunting man 
 drink as much whisky as he thinks good for him 
 overnight, but let him drink it with plain water, 
 and not soda water, for not only does the excessive 
 drinking of mineral waters generate fat, but it gener- 
 ates fat round the heart. 
 
 Though we have warned the novice against mineral 
 waters, it would be impertinent for us to hazard an 
 opinion about alcoholic stimulants or tobacco. If he 
 wishes to become a first-flight man and always to 
 be in the same field with hounds, he will have to 
 live by rule, but he will discover for himself what 
 that rule ought to be long before he has served his 
 apprenticeship in the hunting-field. We can advise 
 him only to allow any change in his consumption of 
 
142 HUNTING 
 
 stimulants or tobacco to be gradual and not sudden. It 
 is a common mistake for the novice on the eve of a 
 day's hunting to abstain from stimulants and tobacco 
 of any sort, under the impression that such abstention 
 will improve his nerve. It will do nothing of the 
 sort, but it will cause him to pass a sleepless night. 
 By all means he should have a glass of wine or a 
 glass of whisky-and-water less than usual ; he should 
 smoke a cigar or pipe less than usual; he should go 
 to bed half-an-hour earlier than usual. But he might 
 just as well — perhaps better — go without his dinner 
 as go without any stimulant or tobacco. Let it be 
 remembered that when we speak of a rider having a 
 good nerve, we mean that he is composed in the saddle, 
 therefore any cause of action likely to injure his 
 ordinary composure must be bad for his nerve as a 
 rider. 
 
 ISTot only the novice, but the experienced man, has 
 often asked us what ought to be the proper breakfast 
 on a hunting morning. Our answer is, "Whatever 
 you like, so long as it is digested before you arrive 
 at covert-side." However, we venture to offer the 
 following suggestions. Now that the old prejudice 
 in favour of nothing but tea or coffee as drink at 
 breakfast is disappearing, we suggest a glass — never 
 more than a couple of glasses — of sound bitter beer, 
 or two glasses of light wine, or a small bottle of 
 champagne — in the last case the cork must be drawn 
 sufficiently long before drinking to permit of the 
 effervescence subsiding — as the best drink for a hunt- 
 ing breakfast. Many men prefer weak whisky-and- 
 
PERSONAL HINTS FOR HUNTING MEN 143 
 
 water as being easiest of digestion, and digestion is 
 the main thing to be considered. The familiar B. 
 and S. only makes a man like an inflated air balloon ; 
 and the tea or coffee drinker invariably requires a 
 liqueur before he feels fit to get into the pigskin, 
 which proves that the tea or coffee must be bad 
 for him if he needs a "digestive" to correct its 
 influence. 
 
 Like the liquid, so the solid food should be both 
 sustaining and easy of digestion, such as the lean of 
 mutton chops, devilled chicken, or cold meat. Dry 
 toast without butter is preferable to bread. Perhaps, 
 if we had to sum up our ideas of a hunting break- 
 fast, we could not describe it better than as the 
 light lunch of the ordinary Englishman, for the hunt- 
 ing tyro must bear in mind that he has to go through 
 a long day's physical exercise with very limited 
 opportunities for refreshment. 
 
 But what ought that limited refreshment to be ? 
 Certainly the more limited the better. The time 
 when a huge bottle-shaped flask and a sandwich-case 
 like a small portmanteau were common appendages 
 to the saddle is past. Perhaps their absence is a 
 sacrifice to the fashion which demands that there 
 should be nothing superfluous about horse or 
 rider. Some men arrange a compromise by making 
 their second horsemen carry their luncheon encum- 
 brances ; but, for those who cannot afford the luxury of 
 second horses, and wish their appearance in the hunt- 
 ing-field to be without a flaw, there is no alternative 
 but the small pocket flask and the smallest quantity 
 
144 HUNTING 
 
 of edible matter whicli is sufficient to ward off any 
 feelings of faintness. Chocolate, raisins, or bovril 
 lozenges have the advantage of taking up less room 
 than sandwiches, which, if carried, should always be 
 made of toast and not bread. But so long as 
 quantity is sacrificed to quality, both liquid and 
 solid refreshment must depend upon the taste of the 
 rider. 
 
 If the novice rides his hunter to the meet, he should 
 allow himself plenty of time, so as not to be obliged 
 to go at the rate of more than six miles an hour. 
 If he is a stranger he should note the geography of 
 the country as much as he can and the nature of the 
 fences, for very often the knowledge thus gained will 
 prove to be exceedingly useful later in the day. He 
 will also by this means gradually train his eye to 
 become what is commonly called "a good eye to a 
 country." Many men during a long railway journey 
 amuse themselves by marking the places they would 
 choose to jump in the country through which they 
 are travelling, though the amusement is modified 
 by the wish to exchange the train for a horse. 
 
 We must now "hark forward" to the return home- 
 wards. Unless you finish very close to home it is 
 always advisable to "gruel" your horse, and to see 
 that he takes his gruel, before you think about your 
 own refreshment. Always untighten the girths first. 
 If a horse will drink it, a pint of old ale in the 
 gruel acts as a good stimulant; indeed, some men 
 make a point of accustoming their horses to take ale, 
 as it gives a fillip to a tired horse on the homeward 
 
PERSONAL HINTS FOR HUNTING MfiN 145 
 
 journey. Always see that a rug is thrown over the 
 horse while you have your own refreshment, in con- 
 suming which you should lose no time, for fear of 
 your horse getting stiff. Besides, the stables at road- 
 side inns, as a rule, are not remarkable for luxurious 
 or sanitary arrangements. If the stable smells close, 
 insist upon the door being left partially open, for a 
 tired, hot horse used to a healthy stable is apt to get 
 "belly-ache" in a close stable, even during the few 
 minutes he is inside it, especially if he takes his 
 gruel greedily. Also feel over his legs for thorns. 
 Eemember that in the partnership between horse 
 and rider during a day's hunting the horse has done 
 far the greater share of the work, so that common 
 kindness and gratitude demand that you should look 
 well after him on the journey home. Walk by his 
 side occasionally for a quarter of a mile ; the walk 
 will relieve him and prevent you getting stiff. Finally, 
 bear in mind that the horse is a sensitive animal, 
 fully capable of appreciating kindness. 
 
 Let us say a few words about the treatment of the 
 rider ! 
 
 Before dressing for dinner, he will require a fillip 
 of some sort. For our own part, we prefer a cup of 
 strong, clear soup ; but if that luxury is not to be 
 obtained from the culinary authorities, then a glass 
 of whisky-and-milk and a dry biscuit is perhaps the 
 best substitute. Some people prefer tea, in which 
 case the tea should be drunk at least an hour before 
 dinner. We may mention that there are few things 
 more annoying to the hunting man than to have to 
 
 K 
 
146 HUNTING 
 
 hurry over his dinner toilet, and few things more 
 enjoyable than the luxury of dressing leisurely, and 
 having his bath at the temperature which he likes. 
 The hot air box, sometimes called a portable Turkish 
 bath, is now found to be a great boon to hunting 
 men. It only costs between £3 and £4, can be 
 heated in half-an-hour by an oil lamp, and takes up 
 very little room. 
 
 Hunt breakfasts given at the meet have now 
 gone out of fashion in most hunting countries, and 
 hospitality at the meet is generally limited to dry 
 sherry, liqueurs, and biscuits. Where the custom is 
 kept up, the object is that members of the hunt may 
 have an opportunity of extending their hospitality to 
 the farmers. 
 
 The novice should be careful always to carry plenty 
 of small change, for the requirements for small change 
 in the hunting-field are innumerable. "Paid Is. for 
 catching my horse" is a constant entry in the fox- 
 hunter's diary, and it is well to be prepared even for 
 unwelcome casualties. 
 
 Probably almost as many men object to riding the 
 horses of their friends as there are men who object 
 to lending their horses. We have often heard bold 
 riders declare that they feel nervous when riding 
 another man's horse. We do not allude to that small 
 section of first-rate riders whom owners are only too 
 anxious to get to ride their horses, so as to make 
 them into good hunters. Every hunt possesses at 
 least two, if not more, of such men, who may be 
 termed " gentlemen rough riders." They will make a 
 
PERSONAL HINTS FOR HUNTING MEN 147 
 
 hunter for the pleasure of hunting in the same way 
 as a good shot will shoot another man's game for the 
 pleasure of shooting. But, as the most conceited 
 tyro cannot expect to improve his friend's horse, he 
 must do his best not to spoil him. If he is a nervous 
 man, he will make the horse nervous, and not im- 
 probably cause him to become a refuser. The man 
 who excuses himself for not jumping because he is 
 riding somebody else's horse is generally at heart 
 " a funk." The man who " sneaks " through gaps and 
 calls it " riding with judgment " does more to ruin a 
 horse than the man who does not pretend to jump, 
 but keeps to bridle-paths and roads. He earns the 
 contemptuous fame of being a "hard funker." To 
 such a man we feel inclined to say, as Mr Pickwick 
 said to Mr Winkle when the latter gentleman 
 essayed to disport himself upon the ice, " A humbug, 
 sir. I will speak plainer if you wish it. An im- 
 postor, sir." Therefore, we strongly advise the novice 
 not to pretend to take care of his friend's horse when 
 he is only taking care of himself. He is sure to be 
 found out, and will not again be offered a mount. 
 Should he think that the owner has not volunteered 
 sufficient information about the horse, one minute's 
 conversation with the groom is preferable to worry- 
 ing the master. Nor should he forget to tip the 
 groom, for that tip will make a great difference to 
 the groom's opinion of the horse's condition on the 
 following morning, and the novice's chances of an 
 offer of a mount for another day. He should also 
 praise the horse to the groom, for the groom who is 
 
148 HUNTING 
 
 worth his Salt feels proud to hear his charges praised, 
 and will praise the novice's riding in return. This 
 advice may savour of Machiavelli, but Machiavelli 
 was a clever man, though he did possess Satanic 
 cunning ; therefore always praise the horse which has 
 been lent you, unless you intend to purchase him. 
 
CHAPTEE II. 
 
 HINTS TO YOUNG BREEDERS. 
 
 Owing to ignorance and carelessness, the breeding of 
 horses has generally been regarded by the agriculturist 
 as a sure road to ruin, though, with the exercise of a 
 reasonable amount of care, it should be one of the most 
 successful departments of agriculture. Hitherto the 
 selection of sires and dams, the treatment of foals, and 
 their subsequent schooling, have chiefly demanded the 
 attention of large breeders of thoroughbred stock. The 
 tenant farmer and small landowners consider the risks 
 attendant upon horse-breeding to be out of proportion 
 to the chances of profit, and so have not taken the 
 trouble to examine how the risks may be minimised. 
 We ourselves think that no paddock of two acres or 
 more is complete without a mare and her foal ; and as 
 many of our readers who are not farmers doubtless 
 possess such a paddock, we address our remarks to 
 them, as well as to the tenant farmers, to whom profit 
 must be the primary consideration. We often hear a 
 farmer urge as an argument against horse-breeding that 
 he has to wait so long for a return of his capital, as if 
 the same argument did not apply with equal, if not with 
 greater, force, to any branch of agriculture. Certainly 
 
 149 
 
150 HUNTING 
 
 the farmer has to be out of his money by breeding 
 bullocks for a longer time than by breeding horses. 
 A bullock is not fit for the butcher till he has attained 
 from three to four years, and the cost of rearing him 
 and fattening him for the market is equal to that of 
 rearing a horse. Then mark the result ! A good 
 bullock when fattened — and the process of fattening 
 takes six months — is worth from £25 to j£30. An 
 inferior hunter of the same age is worth the same sum ; 
 a moderate hunter is worth from £75 to £100 ; and a 
 first-rate hunter will fetch from £150 to £200, and 
 even more. By the term hunter in this last paragraph 
 we mean a horse bred for hunting purposes. The 
 breeding of thoroughbred stock and of shire horses is 
 not within the scope of this chapter. 
 
 These figures tell us that the breeding and rearing 
 of hunters ought to be profitable, if pursued with due 
 care on the right lines, and the incontrovertible fact 
 that no country in the world can breed horses of 
 equal value with those of the United Kingdom ought 
 to operate as an additional stimulus to horse-breeding. 
 Moreover, we are convinced that the failures which are 
 put down to bad luck are invariably the fault of the 
 breeder or his servants. Of course, infallible rules 
 cannot be established for breeding until certain causes 
 are defined, which would insure certain results in 
 reference to the procreation of animals; but discrep- 
 ancies, which are frequently set down to the caprice 
 of Nature, may often be accounted for if people will 
 only take the trouble to search deep enough for the 
 cause. Men breed from inferior, leggy, bad-actioned, 
 
HINTS TO YOUNG BEEEDERS 151 
 
 ill-shaped, and worthless animals, for the simple reason 
 that they possess height and size, though experience 
 has taught us that moderate-sized, or even little mares, 
 are more likely to bring forth valuable foals than are 
 big, gawky ones. Yet how often do breeders sacrifice 
 harmony of proportion to size and substance ! Another 
 fatal error which is still more common is to breed from 
 a worn-out mare at the age of fourteen or fifteen 
 years, because she has carried her owner safe and well 
 to hounds. The produce of such a mare is seldom 
 worth rearing, yet year after year hundreds of amateur 
 breeders try the experiment, because they do not like to 
 lose the services of a valuable hunter till she is past her 
 work in the hunting-field. A six or seven-year-old 
 mare is the most likely to produce good foals. Such 
 mares doubtless command big prices, but with care 
 and an average amount of Dame Fortune's favours, the 
 purchaser should soon recoup himself with interest, since 
 from a good, sound young mare you may expect to have 
 ten or a dozen fine colts, which in due time may sell at 
 an average of £100. The greatest care must be taken 
 to find out that the mare is free from hereditary defects 
 by examining through former generations and collateral 
 branches. Cataract, or any form of constitutional 
 blindness, roaring, when not caused by inflammation, 
 spavins, and curbs, since they arise from malformation 
 of the hock, are considered as hereditary defects, but 
 any defect should be regarded with the greatest 
 suspicion. 
 
 The choice of a stallion is not only the initial 
 difficulty, but one of the greatest difficulties with 
 
152 HUNTING 
 
 which the young breeder has to contend. The rule 
 briefly is, to correct in the progeny the defects or 
 imperfections of the mare by seeking in the stallion 
 perfection in those points in which the mare is 
 defective. But there is one exception to this rule 
 which is constantly overlooked, namely, that it is 
 worse than useless to try to compensate by the 
 great size of the sire for the deficiency in that 
 respect of the mare. The reason for this exception 
 is that the offspring will partake of some of the 
 proportions of the sire and some of the dam, therefore, 
 if a very large horse be put to a very small mare, 
 the foal may take after its sire in the fore-quarters, 
 and its dam in the hind-quarters, and will lack the 
 exactness of anatomical proportions, without which a 
 horse is comparatively worthless. The surest means 
 of gaining success in the art of selecting suitable 
 crosses is to trace the pedigrees of the best horses 
 of modern times, and make choice of blood as nearly 
 as possible approximating to that which has been 
 conducive to so much excellence. That what is bred 
 in the bone comes out in the flesh, we feel convinced 
 is as true in the equine as it is in the human race. 
 Yet the trouble of tracing pedigrees, indispensable 
 to the successful breeding of racing stock, is often 
 neglected in regard to the breeding of hunters, though 
 it must be the foundation of successful breeding. 
 
 It is a well-authenticated fact that the thorough- 
 bred sire is the only available progenitor of the most 
 valuable horses suitable for hunting purposes. Owing 
 to the increase in the breeding of thoroughbred stock, 
 
HINTS TO YOUNG BREEDERS 153 
 
 due to the encouragement given to racing, the supply 
 of thoroughbred stallions is quite equal to the demand, 
 so that neither the amateur novice nor the tenant 
 farmer should experience much difficulty in finding 
 one suitable to the mare from which they wish to 
 breed. Naturally, the tenant farmer will seek in the 
 first place amongst the stallions placed at his disposal 
 by the Hunt Entire Horse Fund, upon the committee 
 of which there is sure to be at least one expert on 
 horse-breeding ready to give him the benefit of his 
 advice and experience. Two points, however, must be 
 remembered. Firstly, many horses which have gained 
 distinction as sires of racing stock are ill adapted for 
 producing hunters, on account of their great length of 
 structure and flat sides. Secondly, the few horses 
 which have signalled themselves out in both depart- 
 ments command higher fees than are consistent with 
 the class of mares to which we are referring, for which 
 the fees should range from three to five guineas. 
 Again, for hunting stock we prefer travelling stallions 
 to the pampered, petted, and inordinately fed horses of 
 the aristocratic stud farms, who are seldom allowed to 
 enjoy any exercise beyond that which can be obtained 
 in the box and adjoining yard. One pernicious habit, 
 however, which the owners of travelling stallions have, 
 must be guarded against, namely, that of allowing the 
 stallion to serve an inordinate number of mares. The 
 number during the season should be restricted to fifty 
 at the outside, and never should more than three mares 
 be presented in one day, and then the times should be 
 equally divided. Yet not only is this number con- 
 
154 HUNTING 
 
 stantly exceeded, but the owner of the stallion boasts 
 of the fact, under the erroneous impression that it 
 proves the popularity of his horse amongst owners of 
 mares. As a matter of truth, it only prophesies debility 
 in the foals. Before leaving the subject of the stallion, 
 we recommend that a mare should never be sent but 
 to the same stallion during the course of her career in 
 the stud, unless it cannot possibly be avoided, provided 
 always that her first foal turned out well, as it is an 
 authenticated fact that a mare has a greater predilection 
 for one partner than another. Finally, it is the usual 
 practice to present mares to the horse nine days after 
 they have foaled, and, if the desired event does not 
 then take place, they should be presented again in a 
 fortnight. 
 
 Owing to the rules of the Jockey Club as to the 
 registration of age, it has become the fashion to fix the 
 period when mares are to foal at as early a date in 
 January as can be predicted with any degree of 
 certainty; but the reasons for this fashion do not 
 apply to hunters. On the contrary, there are many 
 important objections to foals being brought forth too 
 early in the year, and the months of March, April, 
 and May are undoubtedly the most favourable periods, 
 when the dam can enjoy the green herbage of spring, 
 which is the best food for the secretion of milk, and 
 the weather is sufficiently warm to allow of the dam 
 and foal being released from their box. Even in 
 regard to weight-for-age races, many breeders of 
 racing stock consider an April foal to be equal to a 
 January foal, for the reason that spring herbage is 
 
HINTS TO YOUNG BREEDERS 155 
 
 far more strengthening than any artificial succedaneum, 
 to say nothing of the invigorating effects produced 
 upon the baby by fresh air and sunshine. On the 
 other hand, a late summer or early autumn colt will 
 not have time to gain strength before the winter sets 
 in, while the dam will be changing her coat, and be 
 therefore more liable to catch cold. Should the novice 
 not have a building suitable as a " lying-in " hospital 
 on his property, a barn, so long as it is sheltered, 
 roomy, and well ventilated, will be sufficient for the 
 purpose, and such a place can generally be hired in 
 country places for the short time that it is required. 
 It should be protected with dry litter, never with new 
 straw, which at this period mares are apt to devour 
 greedily with a morbid appetite. Both food and water 
 should be supplied in moderation three times a day. 
 As the time approaches for the mare to foal, she should 
 be visited every second hour both day and night, as at 
 the crisis attention and watchfulness are most essential. 
 In nine cases out of ten, mares will require no assist- 
 ance during the act of parturition ; but, if assistance is 
 needed, it is better to trust to the services of an ex- 
 perienced shepherd or cowman, who, in the absence of 
 a veterinary surgeon, will generally be available to 
 those of a groom, whose experience, if he have any at 
 all, must necessarily be limited. Moreover, the mare 
 resents any over-officious assistance, and her efforts to 
 resent it are dangerous to herself and the foal. After 
 delivery she should on no account be disturbed or 
 interfered with, especially while she is cleaning the 
 foal. After that process is finished, she should have 
 
156 HUNTING 
 
 a bucket of warm linseed gruel and a bran mash offered 
 to her, the after-birth should be carried away, and the 
 mother left in quietness. Should the after-birth show 
 signs of receding, it must be removed with the utmost 
 gentleness, or the loss of the mare may be the 
 consequence. 
 
 The novice now is in possession of his first foal, of 
 which he is probably prouder than its dam is, and 
 he must attend to his duties as a nurse without 
 usurping the duties of a doctor, which should be left 
 to the veterinary surgeon. He must see that his 
 charges enjoy the invigorating influences of fresh air 
 and sunshine, as soon as the foal can stand well on 
 its legs, and the dam is not an invalid from cold 
 or any other cause ; but he must use the utmost caution 
 in not allowing them to be exposed to wet, not even 
 to a slight shower, as the woolly texture of the coat 
 of a foal is such that when once it becomes wet 
 through it takes a long time to get dry again. It is 
 owing to want of care in this respect that many foals 
 contract catarrhal affections, which subsequently become 
 constitutional, and often develop into roaring. Signs of 
 constipation should be watched for both in dam and 
 foal, and laxatives administered, which should be 
 always at hand, though we prefer to leave the nature 
 of their composition to the veterinary surgeon. Now 
 we must say a few words about the paddock and 
 paddock buildings, which constitute the nursery of 
 the foal. 
 
 As we are not dealing with the case when a breeding 
 stud of any magnitude is to be formed, we shall confine 
 
HINTS TO YOUNG BREEDERS 157 
 
 our remarks to the case of 3 acres and a hovel. 
 The latter should face the south, and the former 
 must be well drained, as, indeed, all land should be. 
 The hovel or box should be 12 feet by 16 feet, 
 or even larger, and must have no angular projections 
 of any kind. The door should open outwards with 
 hooks in the wall to keep it back, and with rollers 
 on the doorcases to prevent accidents during ingress 
 and egress. It should also be cut transversely at the 
 height of 5 feet, or higher than the stable door, to 
 prevent any injuries arising through the mare or foal 
 endeavouring to leap through the half -door. Indeed, 
 to make assurance doubly sure, it is better to have 
 the upper portion secured with iron bars. As in the 
 stables, so in the hovel, ventilation is one of the 
 principal features. Holes in the wall, with little 
 wooden shutters made to slip backwards and forwards, 
 and placed as high as the side walls will permit, are 
 the simplest means of ventilation. Funnels through 
 the roof, made with four boards from 9 to 12 inches 
 wide, and having cupola tops to prevent rain from 
 descending, though not absolutely necessary, will be 
 found of great advantage. According to the calculations 
 of Boussingault, a horse consumes 13 lbs. 3 J oz. of 
 oxygen in twenty-four hours, or about five times as 
 much as a man, and most of the consumption takes place 
 in a confined stable or box. Therefore, it is essential 
 that all arrangements for the ingress of fresh and the 
 egress of foul air should be as near perfection as 
 possible in the case of delicate foals and their dams, 
 in order to supply the vital principles of the atmo- 
 
158 HUNTING 
 
 sphere. The hovel must also be so constructed as to 
 permit of every part of it being cleansed thoroughly 
 in the event of illness; therefore, as in the stable, 
 the fittings cannot be too simple. Mangers are pre- 
 ferable to racks, and the water trough should not 
 be adjacent to the manger, as mares and foals when 
 feeding are apt to deposit portions of the corn in 
 the water, but, if racks are used, the bars which 
 reach nearly to the ground should not be more than 
 an inch and a half apart, or the foals may get their 
 feet or legs entangled in them. The other fittings have 
 been already described in our chapter on " Stables 
 and Stable Management." 
 
 A light, dry, sandy soil is evidently the most conducive 
 to the welfare of the equine race, but in any case the 
 land must be thoroughly drained. It is a mistake to 
 think that humid, rich pasture is good for horses; indeed, 
 it is not essential that any grass or pasturage should 
 be cultivated in the paddock, in which, if constantly 
 occupied, the vegetation would soon be destroyed. 
 Air and exercise are the objects of the paddock, and 
 grazing land is not in the least necessary for breed- 
 ing horses. Many farmers, who occupy arable farms 
 not capable of being made remunerative at all times 
 by the cultivation of wheat and barley, might do 
 worse than turn their attention to horse-breeding, 
 more especially as the manure of horses is far more 
 valuable for agricultural purposes than that of any 
 other class of animals. Modern science has decided 
 that the best system of rearing cattle is to keep them 
 in yards or enclosures sheltered by farm buildings, 
 
HINTS TO YOUNG BREEDERS 159 
 
 because the food goes further, and the cattle are 
 more quiet and less exposed to accident, while the 
 vast amount of valuable manure that is collected 
 and the soakage secured in tanks admits of an 
 increased quantity of stock being kept on a given 
 quantity of land. If the system of confinement is 
 good for cattle, it must be doubly so for horses. The 
 old prejudice that the system is opposed to Nature 
 falls to the ground when we consider that, except in 
 certain parts of Wales and Exmoor, the horse now is 
 a domesticated animal, and is as much liable to incur 
 harm from the vicissitudes of nature as the human 
 being. 
 
 The period at which foals may be most advan- 
 tageously weaned is determined by such a variety of 
 circumstances that the novice ought to consult his 
 veterinary surgeon. Of course the circumstances are 
 mainly dependent upon the quality and quantity of 
 the mare's milk, and the question of her being again 
 in foal; but the laws which govern the quality and 
 quantity of the milk, and the remedies which cure 
 the deficiency, are too complex and multifarious to 
 admit of discussion in these pages. As a rule, 
 September is the best month for weaning foals, and 
 then further precautions must be taken. 
 
 A few weeks before the time of weaning a small 
 head-collar with an 18 - inch strap for holding 
 and leading should be put on the foal, in case of 
 subsequent illness or accident, besides being a pre- 
 liminary education. A secure box is necessary for 
 the accommodation of the foal when weaned, at such 
 
160 HUNTING 
 
 a distance from that of the mare that they cannot 
 hear each other, and further care must be exercised 
 to prevent either of them rushing through open door- 
 ways. Should the breeder possess more than one 
 foal, a separate box should be assigned to each, or 
 the stronger foal will bully the weaker. A few days 
 should elapse after the foal is taken from its dam 
 before it is let out into the paddock, so that both 
 may have become reconciled to the separation. 
 
 We now pass on to the system of rearing foals, which, 
 after they are weaned, should not be kept in confine- 
 ment more than the weather demands, as they require 
 exercise in order to promote the development of their 
 young frames. A first-rate judge once aptly compared 
 the legs of young horses to willow twigs, which you 
 may bend to any form you please'; and so the 
 surface of the land on which they are reared demands 
 attention. An unequal surface is far preferable to a 
 flat surface, as on the former the young horse will gain 
 that elasticity coupled with strength on which to a 
 large extent he will have to depend in the hunting- 
 field, which is not like the flat surface of a race- 
 course, yet the uneven surface must not be hard. 
 Ploughed fields, when not too deep or too hard, will 
 teach a young horse the use of his limbs, as well as 
 uneven turf, while the walking about on the soil 
 has a beneficial effect on the feet. In frosty weather, 
 when the ground is hard and slippery, tan or straw 
 must be used. In all cases, stony places, such as 
 flinty downs, must be avoided, or any place where 
 a horse is likely to blemish himself. 
 
HINTS TO YOUNG BEEEDEES 161 
 
 It is the nature of all young children, equine or 
 otherwise, to be frolicsome, and the more frolicsome 
 a young horse is the better is his health. There are 
 few sights at which we would rather gaze than that 
 of a young horse gambolling in the aftermath on a 
 warm autumn day. Unfortunately, his frolics often 
 lead him into trouble, and this trouble we must do 
 our best to guard against. No iron of any sort should 
 be allowed in the enclosure in which the young horse 
 is placed to romp, not even the high iron railings used 
 in deer parks. We once knew a valuable filly to 
 catch its leg in these railings, with the result that 
 the leg was broken and she had to be shot. A 
 high bank with a gorse or furze fence on the top 
 is the best boundary, but in any case the fence 
 should be sufficiently formidable for the horse neither 
 to be able to jump it, nor to attempt to jump 
 it. Of course, at this period anything in the shape 
 of punishment cannot be too sternly deprecated ; 
 one might just as well punish an infant. The in- 
 human savage found punishing a young horse should 
 be soundly chastised and literally kicked off the 
 premises. 
 
 The usual months for castrating yearling colts are 
 the months of May and June, as, if operated upon 
 earlier, they will not have shed their coats, and if 
 later the hot weather may be prejudicial. It is not 
 our province to discuss in these pages either the 
 " pros " or " cons " of the operation. 
 
 The novice, as we have before hinted, would do 
 well to leave the question of physicking to his 
 
 L 
 
162 HUNTING 
 
 veterinary surgeon, but it is necessary that he and 
 his groom should understand how to administer a ball. 
 Every groom thinks that he possesses the requisite 
 knowledge, yet few grooms do, so that they have 
 to have recourse either to violence or to the cruelty 
 of balling irons, and previous ill-usage when they 
 are foals will often cause old horses to resent the 
 operation. " Cecil's " prescription, in his work " The 
 Stud Farm," an invaluable book from which we have 
 learnt many useful lessons, is the most lucid that we 
 have come across, so we quote it in extenso : "The 
 assistant should place his right hand on the nose of 
 the horse in such a manner as not to press on the 
 soft portion or cartilage, and thereby interrupt the 
 breathing; he then inserts his thumb on the bars, 
 and, with two fingers placed on the lower jaw, opens 
 the mouth, which, being performed with tenderness, 
 will not create alarm or confusion. The operator, 
 having his right hand defended by a glove, the two 
 forefingers of which have been cut off, places the ball 
 between those fingers, keeping his hand as fiat as 
 possible — not with his knuckles arched, a foolish bad 
 custom; then, by taking hold of the tongue very 
 gently with his left hand, he draws it out of the 
 mouth as far as he conveniently can without causing 
 pain, when, by inserting the ball on the root of the 
 tongue, he quickly withdraws his hand, and imme- 
 diately shutting the horse's mouth, the ball will be 
 swallowed without trouble." We may add that we 
 regard the use of the switch as a custom to be de- 
 precated, if only for the reason that it involves 
 
HINTS TO YOUNG BREEDERS 163 
 
 cruelty to the horse, and, so far as our experience 
 has taught us, it is unnecessary. 
 
 The breeder now has his yearling ready either 
 to be sold or to be made into a hunter ; but the 
 making or schooling of a hunter demands a chapter 
 to itself. 
 
CHAPTEE HI. 
 
 HINTS ABOUT SCHOOLING HUNTEES. 
 
 " It is from judicious management when young that 
 much of the horse's superiority may be expected, and 
 it is by preparing him by degrees for whatever work 
 he may be required to perform that facilitates his 
 maturity, and brings him eventually to the utmost 
 state of perfection to which he is capable of being 
 brought." Such were the words of " Cecil " ; but the 
 methods of preparation for the hunter are so multi- 
 farious, and opinions differ to such a degree, that we 
 approach our present task with no small amount of 
 trepidation. One might as well lay down a fixed 
 rule for parents, telling them how to bring up their 
 sons and daughters, as lay down a fixed rule for 
 schooling the young hunter. Individual young horses 
 differ as much as individual boys or girls. We 
 can only give certain hints and inculcate certain 
 principles, amongst which will not be found that of 
 " Spare the whip, spoil the hunter." 
 
 Now the schooling of hunters is a subject which 
 must be of paramount importance to every hunting 
 man, though we have already stated that the novice 
 
 164 
 
HINTS ABOUT SCHOOLING HUNTERS 165 
 
 in the hunting-field will not necessarily have the ex- 
 perience requisite to make a horse a hunter. Again, 
 the standard of perfection required by the wealthy 
 hunting man of to-day is far higher than that re- 
 quired by our forefathers. What satisfied them does 
 not satisfy us, and, though they may have been as 
 good riders as we are, yet we may fairly lay claim to 
 being better judges both in breeding, rearing, and 
 schooling hunters. Besides, there can be no doubt 
 that the future of fox-hunting does depend in a 
 certain measure upon the schooling of hunters, for it 
 is obvious that if we have not horses which can live 
 with hounds over a country, hunting would lose its 
 charm at once. We heard on all sides that during 
 the 1896-1897 season the supply of first-class hunters 
 was not equal to the demand. There were plenty of 
 animals suitable for the class of men who "ride 
 twenty miles, head the fox, and go home," but we 
 trust that the novice for whom this volume is 
 primarily intended w^ould scorn to belong to such a 
 class. For really good hunters the demand is greater 
 than the supply, since more men hunt, more men 
 have second horses out, and men on the average 
 hunt more frequently than they did, owing probably 
 to increased railway facilities. It has been our 
 business latterly to frequent the weekly sales of 
 Messrs Tattersall, at Albert Gate, and our experience 
 is that while moderate horses described as hunters 
 are allowed to go for what seem ridiculously low 
 prices, the bidding for a first-class hunter immediately 
 becomes brisk, and he is not allowed to go under 
 
166 HUNTING 
 
 three figures, which often begin with a two, and 
 occasionally with a three. Briefly, in regard to the 
 prices which hunters fetch, it all depends on what 
 the purchaser wants them to do. If he wants them 
 to keep a good place when hounds run fast, he must 
 pay a long price. If he wants them to ride about 
 the lanes he can pick them up at prices ranging 
 from twenty-five to fifty guineas. 
 
 But we must " cast forrad," and pick up the scent of 
 our present chapter, taking it for granted that our 
 young breeder has not sold his yearling. Parentheti- 
 cally, we may remark that the best market for yearlings 
 intended for hunting is to be found in Yorkshire. 
 Owing to mistaken ideas, hackney sires were introduced 
 into Yorkshire some few years ago for the purpose of 
 breeding hunters, but experience has proved that the 
 hackney is the worst possible sire for a hunter, so the 
 Yorkshiremen who "make" hunters have to go from 
 home for the raw material, and as breeders are averse 
 to parting with promising yearlings they have to pay 
 high prices. As it is, the question amongst hunting men 
 now is, " Where shall we find our hunters ? " and the 
 question is often followed by " Confound hackneys 
 and hackney shows ! " and not infrequently by, " Con- 
 found all horse shows ! " Certainly we do not advise 
 our novice to train his young horse for the show-yard, 
 for we never yet knew a good horse with hounds come 
 out of the show-yard, and would as soon think of 
 buying a hunter out of a circus. 
 
 Now, in schooling the hunter — we strongly object 
 to the term " breaking-in " — the first thing to consider is, 
 
HINTS ABOUT SCHOOLING HUNTERS 167 
 
 what do we want as the result of our schooling? 
 " Quiet to hounds," is the usual term in vogue with the 
 professional dealer, which means that the horse is a 
 spiritless brute, never seen in a good place, and one 
 that certainly never gets through a good run with 
 credit to himself and satisfaction to his rider. Such 
 a quadruped is no more a good hunter than the pulling, 
 bolting, and refusing animals, which preponderate in 
 every large field of horsemen. We require neither 
 " quiet " horses nor horses of the tearing, rake-away 
 type. We want a " good-mannered " hunter with pace 
 and stamina to live with hounds, in a quick thing 
 or in a slow hunting run. A good-mannered hunter 
 is described by " Marmaduke " as follows : " He is a 
 horse that always answers to his rider's hand, that does 
 not make a rash bolt when some other horse comes 
 galloping past him, and that jumps his fences, no 
 matter what they may be, in collected form, and in 
 the style with which they should be jumped." Such 
 is the standard of excellence which the tutor of hunters 
 must endeavour to attain. 
 
 Except to handle him gently, and make him 
 accustomed to the sight and voice of his future human 
 master or mistress, his education need not be begun 
 till he is a full-grown yearling, i.e. twelve months old, 
 and not a yearling according to Jockey Club Eules. 
 Thence, until he is a two-year-old, he must be frequently 
 led about, and handled every day, for not only is a 
 horse one of the most nervous animals in creation, but 
 the higher - spirited he is, the more nervous he is. 
 In ninety-nine cases out of a hundred, refractory 
 
168 HUNTING 
 
 conduct in a young horse arises out of nervousness, 
 not from inherent vice ; so, during the second year of 
 his life, everything must be done to make him lose 
 fear of the human species. As a two-year-old he must 
 have his first lessons in being lunged, and in being 
 driven about in long reins, the latter an admirable 
 practice, often neglected on account of the trouble and 
 patience which it involves. But, to again quote 
 " Marmaduke," " There is nothing better than the long 
 reins, when used by a workman, to make a horse have 
 a good mouth, and without a good mouth there is 
 no such thing as good manners." 
 
 "We believe that both the temper and the legs of 
 many horses are spoilt during the process of lunging. 
 Grooms regard it as a simple process, and professional 
 horse-breakers regard it as a means of subduing horses. 
 "Lunge him till he is tired," the latter say to their 
 factotums, and the poor brute, originally high-spirited, 
 is lunged till he is harassed and overcome with fatigue, 
 frequently accompanied by giddiness, with the result 
 that he develops a temper, characterised by gloomy 
 cowardice. Now, many good judges have declared 
 that lunging is the most severe work that any horse 
 can be subjected to, and some even go so far as to 
 say that young horses should never be subjected to 
 it. We do not agree with the latter opinion, as 
 we know of no other way by which horses can be 
 taught their paces before they are backed. How- 
 ever, as opinions disagree, we will give rules which 
 we think the young breeder will do well to give to 
 his groom. 
 
HINTS ABOUT SCHOOLING HUNTERS 169 
 
 1. Always set off the colt at first to work to the 
 
 right hand, so that, if he breaks out of the 
 trot, he may lead with the off-leg. 
 
 2. After two minutes, change him to work to the 
 
 left hand, and, if possible, do not let him 
 break. Let him work to the left hand for 
 a minute and a half. 
 
 3. After three minutes and a half, bring him to you 
 
 and fondle him. Young horses, like young 
 children, must be encouraged to learn their 
 lessons. 
 
 4. Eepeat the above process two or three times, 
 
 but stop immediately if the colt shows signs 
 of distress. 
 
 5. Never allow the colt to break from the canter 
 
 into the gallop. 
 
 6. Mark whether in certain paces he strikes or hits 
 
 his legs, in which case he must be lunged in 
 boots or bandages, else inflammation, probably 
 followed by lameness, will ensue. 
 
 We have placed twenty minutes as the outside limit 
 for lunging exercise, which we think quite sufficient 
 in any case. We prefer an uneven to an even surface 
 for lunging, for the same reasons that we prefer an un- 
 even to an even surface for the land on which young 
 horses are reared. As the colt grows accustomed to 
 the lunging rein, he may be lunged over little open 
 drains, and butts of fallen trees. 
 
170 HUNTING 
 
 "We think that it is advisable to accustom a young 
 horse to jumping before he is backed. Most young 
 horses take kindly to jumping, and look to it as a 
 relaxation after the monotony of being lunged in a 
 circle ; but care should be taken not to lunge them 
 over anything which would hurt them if they knocked 
 it, such as stiff oak bars or stiles. Many authorities 
 are against us on this point, and some think it a 
 good plan to place an oak bar before the food of a 
 foal, which can be raised higher and higher. But 
 we are inclined to think that if a young horse once 
 hurts himself in his first endeavours to jump, he will 
 always shirk jumping afterwards, and, not improbably, 
 will develop into a confirmed refuser, than which 
 there can be no more awkward beast to ride in the 
 hunting-field. The advocates of this "bar" system 
 say that it makes a horse clever; but even if he is 
 lucky enough not to get a nasty knock in his baby- 
 hood, he gets into the habit of judging the height 
 of his jumps too accurately, and, sooner or later, is 
 sure to make a mistake and come a nasty cropper, 
 if later, causing dire disaster both to himself and his 
 rider. 
 
 Perhaps the most crucial period in a hunter's life 
 is the time when, as a three-year-old, he is first 
 backed. Some horses seem to think nothing of it. 
 We remember a filly by Cucumber out of a thorough- 
 bred mare, who, having been first mounted for some 
 two or three minutes by her mistress on a side-saddle, 
 immediately afterwards allowed a light-weight groom 
 to ride her about the yard, apparently regarding 
 
HIKTS ABOUT SCHOOLING HUNTERS 171 
 
 this new experience as unconcernedly as if it were 
 an everyday occurrence. Yet she was far from being 
 one of the " quiet " sort. Other horses have an 
 invincible objection to being mounted, and with such 
 the greatest caution has to be exercised. How often 
 do we see even old hunters evince this objection by 
 trying to bite or kick the rider as he is mounting, 
 or, worse still, keep turning round and round ! Such 
 a horse is not a good-mannered horse, but his bad 
 habit is probably the result of injudicious backing 
 in the first instance, as, indeed, much of the dis- 
 position, which characterises the horse in after life 
 may be traced to his early tutorship. 
 
 The dumb-jockey has long been abolished as obsolete. 
 At the best it was only a clumsy contrivance ; at the 
 worst it was a cruel one; in any case it was useless? 
 since it failed to make the horse acquainted with 
 his master — man. "Cecil" recommends that a boy 
 should be put up and taken down again several 
 times before any attempt is made for the animal to 
 be ridden, but, except with colts who have already 
 shown that they possess the seeds of rebellion, we 
 think that such a precaution is unnecessary, and that 
 the horse may be trusted to move forward with the 
 rider on his back, and even to allow himself to be 
 guided. Such, at least, is our own experience ; but 
 the rider must possess light hands, and a rider with 
 light hands is difficult to procure. Grooms, et hoc 
 omne genus, rarely possess them. A boy in a racing- 
 stable, if such a stable is handy and the trainer is 
 willin<][ to lend his services, we have found to be the 
 
172 HUNTING 
 
 best rider to mount a young horse, as he generally 
 possesses light hands and a firm seat, and his ex- 
 perience will have taught him to have patience in 
 dealing with young horses, or he would not remain 
 in a racing-stable. But whoever may be the rider, 
 it is essential that he should possess light hands, a 
 firm seat, a light weight, and patience. Of course 
 the process of mounting should take place under the 
 eye of the master. Some grooms, if they be fearless 
 riders, will make the first attempt surreptitiously, 
 not from malice prepense, but from that love of 
 recklessness, which most of us possess in a more or 
 less marked degree. To a good groom a previous 
 word of warninoj will be sufficient, and a bad s^room 
 ought not to be on the premises. 
 
 The bridle best adapted for use in mounting young 
 horses is the plain snaffle with two reins, one of 
 which passes through a martingale, but in no event 
 should the mouth of the animal be allowed to get 
 sore. A sore mouth makes the horse afraid to face 
 the bit, and causes him to contract a habit of rearing, 
 than which no habit is more dangerous. Some people 
 advocate accustoming a horse to the curb after he 
 has been accustomed to the snaffle, on the grounds 
 that it makes him more handy and improves his 
 action, but except where a horse carries his head 
 badly we doubt the utility of the curb, and much 
 prefer the snaffle bridle and martingale, for the use 
 of the curb premises bad hands on the part of the 
 rider. 
 
 On the principle that it is necessary to teach a child 
 
HINTS ABOUT SCHOOLING HUNTERS 173 
 
 to walk before it can run, horses must be taught to 
 walk, trot, canter, and gallop before they are taught 
 to jump. Some experience they will have gained in 
 their lunging days, but the rudiments of knowledge are 
 not knowledge. It may seem an anomaly, but we 
 believe that the best schoolmaster a young horse can 
 have in the art of jumping is a horse. How often do 
 we hear in the hunting-field that familiar request, 
 " Give me a lead ! " And if a lead be necessary to the 
 experienced hunter, how much more necessary must it 
 be to the young horse ! The rider can tell a horse to 
 jump, but he cannot show him how to do it. Therefore, 
 in his preliminary lessons at home we advise strongly 
 that the pupil should be accompanied by an old hunter. 
 The spirit to jump in young horses is generally willing, 
 but the confidence is lacking. We both know of, and 
 have heard of, numerous instances of horses whom no 
 amount of persuasion would cause to jump in cold 
 blood, but who never refused in the hunting-field, so it 
 would seem that the force of example will make even 
 an unwilling horse jump. After some three or four 
 weeks in the companionship of the older horse he may 
 be taken out by himself, and larked over small places, 
 but the man on his back must be thoroughly trust- 
 worthy. If these lessons have proved satisfactory by 
 the first or second week in September, the horse 
 will be rising four, and may be taken out cub- 
 hunting. 
 
 What can be the feelings of a horse when he first 
 sees hounds ? Apart from the excitement consequent 
 upon finding himself in a throng of other horses, there 
 
174 HUNTING 
 
 seems to be an hereditary sympathy between horse and 
 hound, as if Providence had ordained that the two 
 should work together. The sight of hounds imparts 
 keenness to every nerve in a horse's body. In the 
 case of a young horse it requires the patience of the 
 rider to restrain his ardour, otherwise he may never 
 get rid of intemperate habits at covert-side. Nothing 
 can be more disagreeable both to oneself and one's 
 neighbours than to ride a horse which is always 
 fidgeting, and never will stand still. Yet such horses 
 are common in every hunt. On examination, we have 
 found that the excitement is due to the horse having 
 been ridden in the first place by an excitable rider. 
 He was infected by the latter's excitement, and has 
 never got rid of the infection. Besides, there are 
 some people who never can be quiet or still at covert- 
 side. Such people spoil their own horses, and other 
 people's sport. 
 
 The three- year -old must not be brought out too 
 often in his first season, and then only for short days. 
 Many promising young horses are spoilt by being over- 
 worked in their first season, through their owners 
 wishing to show them off in order to sell them. 
 Their strength is far from being fully developed, and 
 they ought not to be subjected to the fatigue of a big 
 day. Mark a three-year-old in the field, and mark the 
 same horse the next season when he is a four-year-old. 
 It is difficult to believe that it is the same horse, so 
 much will he have filled out. But it is merely the 
 difference between the boy and the man, and as nobody 
 expects a boy to do a man's work, so the three-year-old 
 
HINTS ABOUT SCHOOLING HUNTERS 175 
 
 must not be expected to do the work of a regular 
 hunter. Let this precept be borne in mind, and the 
 four-year-old will be worth double the money of the 
 three- year-old, and, therefore, worth his twelve months' 
 keep to his owner. Indeed, many men buy three-year- 
 olds either to keep for their own riding, or to sell as 
 four-year-olds. 
 
 And as a four -year -old we must now leave 
 him. 
 
CHAPTEE IV. 
 
 CARRIAGE HORSES AS HUNTERS, AND HUNTERS 
 AS CARRIAGE HORSES. 
 
 We feel that in the two preceding chapters we have 
 somewhat diverged from the main purpose of our 
 volume, inasmuch as we have placed before our 
 readers Eothschildean ideas unachievable by the 
 owners of limited incomes, who do not possess 
 landed property ; but now we must descend from the 
 exalted perch of plutocracy to the level of practical 
 economy. The novice in the hunting-field is generally 
 a man who possesses one or two horses, designated by 
 the immortal Mr Jorrocks qui tampers, i.e. horses quiet 
 to ride and drive, which the owner requires to be 
 between the shafts one day, and at the stern of hounds 
 on the next. Not only have we seen, but we have 
 ridden many horses of this description in the hunting- 
 field, and though we have not on these occasions 
 attempted to hold our own in the first flight, we flatter 
 ourselves that we saw more of the sport than the 
 "thrusting scoundrel" who would have disdained to 
 mount our humble conveyance. One of the best men 
 to hounds in the Albrighton country once told us that he 
 
 176 
 
CAimiAGE HORSES AS HUNTERS 177 
 
 could always see hounds hunt better when mounted on 
 a pony than when mounted on the best hunter in his 
 stable, and such must be the experience of most men 
 who ride to hunt, not hunt to ride. A very little 
 trouble will enable the possessor of a trapper, or 
 even a brougham horse, to enjoy a quiet day with 
 hounds. Nor, on the other hand, is there any reason 
 why a horse, ostensibly kept for hunting purposes, 
 should not work between the shafts. Needless to say, 
 the following hints are not intended to apply to 
 first - class hunters, or first - class performers in 
 harness. 
 
 In this chapter we must reverse the dictum of 
 Gambado, and add to the theory as much practice as 
 it has been our experience to have. On several 
 occasions it has been our lot to be mounted on 
 harness-horses which had never seen hounds before, 
 and the fact that we have lived to tell the tale is 
 sufficient evidence that harness horses can be made 
 serviceable in the hunting-field without any undue 
 risk to the neck of the rider. 
 
 To a certain extent, a horse constantly used 
 between the shafts is always in hard condition, but 
 the condition is not that of a hunter. He may be able 
 to trot all day without turning a hair, but he would 
 not be able to gallop across half-a-dozen fields without 
 its being a case of " bellows to mend.'' He is like a 
 man who will walk forty miles in a day easily, but 
 cannot sprint a hundred yards without feeling his 
 heart beat against his ribs. It is necessary, therefore, 
 that the carriage-horse at exercise should be indulged 
 
 M 
 
178 HUNTING 
 
 in plenty of short breathing gallops. It is objected 
 that such exercise is liable to cause the horse to break 
 into a canter when in harness, and doubtless it has 
 this tendency, especially with a careless driver. But 
 one must not expect perfection in a general utility 
 horse, and if he is to be sound in wind, he must have 
 galloping exercise, if it is only for ten minutes or a 
 quarter of an hour at a time. 
 
 Whether or not it is advisable to teach a carriage- 
 horse to jump at home in cold blood is a matter of 
 opinion. We do not think that it is necessary, and the 
 extra work may give a horse a distaste for jumping. 
 From the nature of their work, carriage-horses are 
 less nervous than hunters, and therefore have more 
 confidence when they are first called upon to jump 
 in the hunting-field. Very often their fault is an 
 excess of confidence, as the following experience 
 shows. 
 
 We were staying in a country house where our host 
 was short of hunters, but offered to mount us on a 
 trapper, which, to his knowledge, had never jumped as 
 much as a twig in its life, though it had been occasion- 
 ally used as a hack. We accepted the offer, as, at all 
 events, we should be able to see hounds, even if we 
 should not be able to follow them. As luck would 
 have it, a fox was afoot at the first covert that we 
 drew, and hounds went away immediately at a pace 
 which showed that there was a burning scent. Our 
 trapper was not to be denied, so we went at the first 
 fence with great misgivings as to how we should reach 
 the other side, if at all. Our trapper had no idea of 
 
CARRIAGE HORSES AS HUNTERS 179 
 
 refusing, but, alas, he had no idea of judging his 
 distance, and made his effort with his fore-feet ahiiost 
 in the fence. If there had been a ditch on the near 
 side we must have come to utter grief. After that, 
 knowing that he would not refuse, we took care to give 
 him plenty of time at his fences, and we got through 
 the day without a fall. In such a case we should re- 
 commend placing a stiff guard rail, about a foot in 
 front of a made fence, similar to the guard-rail in front 
 of the open ditch in a steeplechase course. A very few 
 lessons would serve to teach the horse to judge his 
 distance. 
 
 Of course it is useless to try to make a hunter out 
 of a heavy brougham-horse, or one of those high- 
 steppers, who put down their feet at the same spot 
 whence they take them up. Lofty-actioned horses are 
 always uncomfortable to ride, and in harness look to 
 be going twelve miles an hour, when they are not going 
 seven. Yet some judges at horse-shows will persist in 
 awarding prizes for high action ; they might as well 
 award prizes for string-halt. On the other hand, a fast 
 trapper will invariably make a fair conveyance to 
 hounds. But the big, heavy horses, commonly known 
 as family-coach horses, have long gone out of fashion, 
 and will probably soon become obsolete. They cannot 
 get over the ground quickly enough for modern require- 
 ments, besides having to drag their own weight, in 
 addition to the weight of the carriage. We remember 
 the time when a lumbering coach, drawn by a pair of 
 over-fed beasts which ought to have been in the plough, 
 was considered a sign of respectability ; now it would 
 
180 HUNTING 
 
 be regarded as the insane prejudice of an antediluvian 
 dowager. Such horses were useless as hacks, let alone 
 as hunters. It is a matter for congratulation that, 
 except for funerals, the funeral dirge has been sung in 
 this country over Flemish horses. 
 
 The second question, namely, whether hunters should 
 be put between the shafts, is one that requires deeper 
 consideration ; for while a keen man to hounds would 
 not hesitate to ride the best carriage-horse in his stable 
 in default of anything better, many men hesitate 
 before putting a hunter into harness. In the case of 
 a very valuable hunter, i.e. a horse worth 150 guineas 
 or more, we are inclined to doubt the expediency of 
 harness work ; but then it is seldom that the necessity 
 arises, for the man who can afford to give such a 
 figure for his hunters would always be well provided 
 with trappers. In no case should a hunter, or indeed 
 a hack for that matter, be asked to draw anything with 
 four wheels ; the hard pulling work is sure to make 
 his legs fill, and it may take some time before they are 
 right again. But we think that light dog-cart work 
 not only does a horse no harm, but, on the contrary, 
 serves to keep him in hard condition, presuming 
 that his feet and legs are such as we have said they 
 ought to be in our chapter on the Hunter, more 
 especially if the cannon or leg bone is short in com- 
 parison with the forearm, and the fetlocks are free 
 from any enlargement of bone. The prejudice against 
 putting hunters into harness is that the "'ammer, 
 'ammer, 'ammer on the 'ard 'igh-road" knocks their 
 legs about, and, of course, when worked in harness, 
 
1t., CARRIAGE HORSES AS HUNTERS 181 
 
 more care and attention has to be paid to their legs. 
 Yet we do not think that pulling a dog-cart on the 
 hard road does them as much harm as beinsj hacked 
 on the hard road. But either hacking or harness 
 work will soon make any weakness in the legs 
 apparent, and puffiness will follow in the affected 
 part, which must be attended to at once. A friend, 
 who is only a two-horse man, told us this season 
 that neither of his two horses had ever been idle 
 for a single day since they had been in his stable. 
 One he had had six years, and the other seven years. 
 He regularly hacks them, and drives them in a light 
 dog-cart all the year round, and both of them see 
 hounds at least once a week, often three times a 
 fortnight, during the season. Both these horses are 
 nearly thoroughbred ; both are perfect hunters, either 
 with fourteen stone, or a light lady on their backs, 
 and one is one of the smartest trappers it was ever 
 our lot to drive behind. Our friend, who is his own 
 stud-groom, assured us that, even on Sundays, his 
 horses never remained in the stable the whole of 
 the day, and that in this fact lay the secret of their 
 hard condition. "How would you like to remain in 
 the house all day, let alone to be confined in a single 
 room ? " he asked us. Besides, as a rule, the two- 
 horse man keeps his horses to work, and not to look 
 at. On the other hand, we know a gentleman who 
 keeps two horses of a similar stamp, which he never 
 puts in harness, and never gets on their backs 
 except on hunting days. His groom, probably, gets 
 more enjoyment out of them than he does. One 
 
182 HUNTING 
 
 or other of tliem, or both, is always ailing, the cause 
 generally being want of condition. 
 
 Again, we have known several instances during the 
 last few years, where gentlemen, who previously kept 
 horses exclusively for hunting purposes, have been 
 obliged to reduce their stabling establishments for 
 economical reasons. It was the harness horses who 
 were parted with, and the hunters had to experience 
 the indignity of the shafts. Only in one case out of 
 several have we heard of the hunter resenting the 
 indignity. As a rale, the horses took kindly to their 
 new work, and instead of being the worse for it, 
 improved in condition. We have also known instances 
 of horses, lame at the end of the season, come up 
 sound again in the autumn after being summered 
 between the shafts. At the annual autumn sales of 
 the London coach-horses, at Aldridge's, many of the 
 leaders are bought for hunting purposes. We have 
 heard experienced judges declare that whatever 
 else may be the matter with them, such horses 
 seldom fall lame during the hunting season. 
 
 "Good on the road" would not appear a strong 
 recommendation now to the Leicestershire man, who 
 considers that he has not had a good day's sport 
 unless hounds race at a headlong pace, yet such was 
 the title which Mr H. Atkin selected for one of his 
 best-known drawings, executed some eighty years 
 ago, the original o f which is now in the possession of 
 Sir Walter Gilbey. But hunting, like most other 
 mundane institutions, revolves in a circle. "A good 
 hunter, quiet in harness," is now a common form of 
 
CARRIAGE HORSES AS HUNTERS 183 
 
 warranty, but we prefer the old term in vogue amongst 
 our forefathers, when financial embarrassments have 
 rendered it necessary for us to descend to keeping a 
 " general " servant. Let us hope that our fox-hunting 
 readers may not have to descend still lower, and be 
 obliged to pad the hoof themselves in order to witness 
 their favourite sport. "Fox-hunting on foot is but 
 labour in vain," says Egerton Warburton. But fox- 
 hunting on foot and fox-hunting on wheels have 
 nothing to do with this volume, which we must now 
 conclude, lest our readers should echo the words of 
 Shakespeare against us: "He draweth out the thread 
 of his verbosity finer than the staple of his argument." 
 
 THE END 
 
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 PRINTING: — The utmost care has been bestowed upon all the details of 
 
 composition, imposition, register, and printing. 
 TEXT PAPER: — The choicest hand-made paper has been used. 
 PLATES : — The manufacture of the whole of the photogravures and their 
 
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 celebrated photographers. 
 PLATE PAPER :— The finest Breton French plate paper has been used, and, 
 
 for the duplicates of the 40 plates, the finest India paper mounted on the 
 
 same Breton plate. 
 SIZE: — The size is Colombier 4to, forming a magnificent volume, some 18 by 
 
 12 inches. 
 BINDING-: — All possible care has been expended on this, as on every other 
 
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 by bank paper, and the cover is of vellum and strawberry-coloured art 
 
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 The 40 duplicates of the plates on India paper are in a portfolio 
 
 accompanying the volume. 
 
 555 copies only of (his Edition have been printed, 
 PRICE SIX GUINEAS NET. 
 
 James M. Hoppin. GREEK ART ON GREEK SOIL. By 
 
 James M. Hoppin, Professor of the History of Art in Yale University. 
 With twelve Illustrations. 8i/o, cloth extra, ornamental gilt top^ price js. 6d, 
 
WORKS ON ART— continued, 
 
 Christ & His Mother 
 
 IN ITALIAN ART. 
 Edited by JULIA CARTWRIGHT (Mrs. Ady), 
 
 WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY 
 
 ROBERT EYTON (Canon of Westminster). 
 
 Consisting of 50 large-sized Photogravures, all in duplicate ; 
 making in all 1 00 Plates. 
 
 The subjects represented are all the most celebrated Madonnas, Holy 
 Families, Nativities, Crucifixions, and other subjects portraying the various 
 incidents in the Life of Our Lord Jesus Christ. 
 
 Special permission has been obtained for the reproduction of the Leonardo 
 Cartoon from the President of the Royal Academy, and of the Cowpcr 
 Madonna from Lord Cowper. 
 
 The work contains biographies of all the Artists whose works are included, 
 together with descriptive and historical notes of the works themselves. 
 
 Following this is a list of those whose works have been included : — 
 
 Michelangelo. 
 Gentile da Fabriano. 
 Piero della Francesca. 
 Luca Signorelli. 
 Pietro Perugino. 
 Francesco Francia. 
 Raphael. 
 Da Correggio. 
 Bernardino Luini. 
 Andrea Mantegna. 
 
 The details of manufacture as regards printing, text, and plate paper, are the 
 same as in "Venus and Apollo" advertised on the opposite page, but the plates 
 of this work are more in number, of a considerably larger size, and engraved by 
 a more expensive process. With the exception of three of the examples, the 
 whole of the pictures reproduced have been specially photographed in Italy and 
 elsewhere, for the purpose of this work, by Mr. Dixon. 
 
 The binding is of the best Roman Vellum and sky-blue Buckram. 
 
 The India paper duplicates are in a portfolio accompanying the volume. 
 
 Giotto. 
 Fra Angelico. 
 Fra Filippo Lippi. 
 Sandro Botticelli. 
 Domenico Ghirladajo. 
 Leonardo da Vinci. 
 Lorenzo di Credi. 
 Fra Bartolommeo. 
 Mariotto Albertinelli. 
 Andrea del Sarto. 
 
 Giovanni Bellini. 
 Carlo Crivelli, 
 Alvise Vivarini. 
 Vittore Carpaccio. 
 Giorgione. 
 Palma Vecchio. 
 Lorenzo Lotto. 
 Titian. 
 
 Jacopo Tintoretto. 
 Paolo Veronese. 
 
 256 copes only of this Edition have been printed. 
 
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The Cheapest Shakespeare ever issued. 
 
 THE MOST ACCURATE TEXT. 
 
 THE 
 
 COMPLETE WORKS 
 
 OF 
 
 William Shakespeare 
 
 THE FJLSTJFF EDITION. 
 
 The Tempest. [Verona. 
 The Two Gentlemen of 
 The Merry Wives of Wind- 
 Measure for Measure, [sor. 
 The Comedy of Errors. 
 Much Ado about Nothing. 
 Love's Labour 's Lost. 
 AMidsumme r-N i g h t's 
 
 Dream. 
 The Merchant of Venice. 
 As You Like It. 
 The Taming of the Shrew. 
 All's Well that Ends Well. 
 Twelfth Night j or, What 
 
 You Will. 
 The Winter's Tale. [John. 
 The Life and Death of King 
 
 Contents. 
 
 The Life and Death of King 
 
 Richard IL [Henry IV. 
 The First Part of King 
 The Second Part of King 
 
 Henry IV. 
 The Life of King Henry V. 
 The First Part of King 
 
 Henry VI. [Henry VI. 
 The Second Part of King 
 The Third Part of King 
 
 Henry VI. [Richard III. 
 The Tragedy of King 
 The Famous History of the 
 
 Life of King Henry VIII. 
 Troilus and Cressida. 
 Coriolanus. 
 Titus Andronicus. 
 
 Romeo and Juliet. 
 Timon of Athens. 
 Julius Caesar. 
 Macbeth. [mark. 
 
 Hamlet, Prince of Den- 
 King Lear. 
 
 Othello,theMoorof Venice. 
 Antony and Cleopatra, 
 Cymbeline. 
 Pericles. 
 
 VenHS and Adonis. 
 
 The Rape of Lucrece. 
 
 Sonnets. 
 
 A Lover's Complaint. 
 
 The Passionate Pilgrim. 
 
 The Phoenix & the Turtle. 
 
 In this., the "Falstaff" Edition of Shakespeare s ivories, the order in uuhlch the play i 
 are presented is that of the first folio Edition 0/1623, *''■ Pericles," tmhich was not included 
 in that Edition, and the Toems, being added at the end of the 'volume. No neiu reading of the 
 text is attempted ; and only those 'variations from the text of the early Editions are included 
 Vphich ha've been accepted by the best Shakjperian critics. The tasi^ (f the present editor h.n 
 consisted solely in the choice betiveen the readings of these critics vthere they disagree. Fcr 
 the most part the text of T>elius has been followed. 
 
 In one lare, handsome, and well-designed Volume. 
 SIZE: — Large Super Royal 8vo, 10^ by 7^ inches. 
 
 TYPE :— Re-set from New Bourgeois Type of the same fount as tais 
 
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 PAPER :— Choice Antique laid. 
 
 TITLE-PAGE designed by Richard Mather, and printed in red and black. 
 BOUND in dark scarlet cloth of the best quality, with label in red and black. 
 
 II 04 Pages. Price 3/6. Offering absolutely unique value. 
 
PRSSS AND OTHER OPINIONS 
 
 OF THE 
 
 FALSTAFF SHAKESPEARE. 
 
 (For tAdverthement, see previous page.) 
 
 Mr. GLADSTONE says of the "Falstaff Shakespeare," in a note 
 dated November 13th, 1896: 
 
 " Accept my thanks for your courtesy in sending me your new and remark- 
 able edition of Shakespeare, which, in itself, gives a startling proof of the great 
 results that British enterprise is able to achieve at the most moderate prices. 
 " Yours very faithfully, 
 
 {Signed) "W. E. GLADSTONE." 
 
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