THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



309 



by reflection and common sense, will invariably suc- 

 ceed in the long run. And the chief cause, which has 

 of lato years prevented gentlemen from buying their 

 hunters from farmers in their own neighbourhood, has 

 been a practice, which has gradually crept in amongst, 

 the latter, of asking the squire a higher sum than will 



be accepted from the dealer ; nay, in some cases, the 

 squire has actually bought tlie same horse from the 

 pi'ofessional for less money than it would have cost 

 him in the first instance from his own neighbour and 

 fellow-sportsman." 



THE BREEDING OF HUNTERS. 



5Y THE AUTHOR OF " DIGBY GRAND, 



"Nobilis hie, quocumque venit de graniine, cujus 

 Clara fuga, ante alios, et primus in sequore puivis; 

 Sed venale pccus, Corythas, posteritas, et 

 Hirpini, si rara jugo Victoria Bedit,"— Juvenal. 



No one can have hunted much in any of our popular coun- 

 tries without hearing complaints, which season by season seem 

 to be repeated with greater emphasis, as to the increasing 

 scarcity of horses up to weight. " I can't find them to carry 

 me !" is the despairing exclamation of many and many a well- 

 grown sportsman, who, from easy circumstances, a happy lot, 

 and a sunshiuing disposition, backed by the efforts of a sliilful 

 cook, finds himself perhaps a stone or two heavier than he used 

 to be ; and who does not choose, even for the sake of his 

 favourite amusement, to punish himself down to the lean 

 sinewy proportions of a man in training. For the slim under- 

 graduate, or the dashing cornet, who will be with them whether 

 the hounds run or no, there are weeds in plenty able to go the 

 pace and stay the distance ; nay, for the hard-working man 

 of business, or the toughened veteran, there is many a good 

 houeat hunter to be bought at a moderate and satisfactory 

 price ; and so long as the enthusiastic sportsman finds himself 

 balanced, boots, breeches and all, by anything under thirteen 

 Btone in the opposite scale, he need neither baulk his ardour 

 in the chase, nor his appetite at the dinner-table. It is when 

 the additional pounds, that run him up to thirteen aud a-half, 

 fourteen, or eveu fifteen stone, require to be added, ere they 

 raise his swan-necked spurs from off the carpet, that he begins 

 to find out the true meaning of the phrase " hunting under 

 diflSculties." 



Now, if we look at any field of gentlemen assembled in any 

 of our EngUsh countries, we shall be surprised to find how 

 numerous a portion of these equestrians are men who ride 

 nearer fifteen stone than anything else ; and although this may 

 sound at first an unusual weight, our surprise at the fact will 

 disappear, as it generally does, on a careful analysis of its 

 cause. 



It is well known in the ring that a man's fighting weight ia 

 commonly about a stone below that of his usual every-day con- 

 dition, supposing him to be a hard-working mechanic, or 

 craftsman, in good health; also that an eleven-stone man is 

 what is termed a middle-weight. We may therefore put twelve 

 stone as the average weight, not of our whole population, but 

 of a strong healthy Euglishmau belonging to the working 

 classes. We must likewiae consider that the aristocracy and 

 gentry are usually of even larger build than their humbler 

 countrymen ; also that those who indulge in the pastime of 

 fox-hunting are not the least vigorous and athletic of their 

 kind; and with good living, robust health, and plenty of sleep, 

 it is not too much to give them twelve stone seven pounds, as 

 a fair average weight. Few people are aware that the differ- 

 ence between a man stripped statk naked, and the same man 

 dressed and armed cap-a-pie for the chase, iA leathers and top- 



boots, with a warm waistcoat, and scarlet lined with flannel, 

 hat on head and whip in hand, is fourteen pounds ! The truth 

 of this statement is easily tested, as any one can try the expe- 

 riment ; aud we therefore bring our sportsman to the steps of 

 his own hall-door at thirteen stone seven pounds. No hunting 

 saddle that has been in use a season, with girths, stirrup-irons, 

 and breast-plate, can weigh much less than sixteen pounds ; 

 and two more, at least, in these days of nice handling and 

 terrific instruments, must be allowed for the bridle. If our 

 arithmetic he correct, we have added up x sum total of fourteen 

 stone eleven pounds ; and the balance of three pounds is all 

 we are entitled to receive out of the fifteen stone. 



Now these are no stout unwieldy gentlemen, who trot out 

 to look about them, get an appetite, and so trot quietly home 

 agaiu, but stroug skilful horsemen who must and will be car- 

 ried wherever the hounds go ; who object, moreover, to falls 

 and scrambles and all such undignified exhibitions, except where 

 fairly purchased and rendered uuavoidable by the pace. Can 

 we wonder that they find some difficulty in procuring the class of 

 animal that can go on, field after field, over a deep and strongly- 

 enclosed country, gallopiug freely and jumping safely with so 

 considerable a burden on their backs ? Agaiu, the difficulties 

 of hunting, as regards the horse, have been very much increased 

 within the last half-century. We do not here allude to his 

 condition. Doubtless good stable management is far more 

 common than it used to be ; though we cannot but think that 

 even in the days of the far-famed Billesdon Coplow run, im- 

 mortalized in the best hunting poem ever written, there must 

 have been grooms at Melton who knew a thing or two, and 

 that when 



" Villiers, Cliolmondely, an'\ Forfster made such sharp play 

 (Not forgptting Germaine) never seen f.ll that day; 

 Had you judged of these four by tlie trim of their pace, 

 At Bibury you'd thought they'd been riding a race 1" 



they had racing condition under them, as well as the rough. 

 bred horses, with which to take such liberties ; nor when 



" Villiers esteemed it a serious bore 

 That no longer could Shuttlecock fly as before," 



he had reason to be dissatisfied either with his groom or his 

 horse, or the pace at which he had rattled the flyer over the 

 severe dips and wide-stretching pastures which intervene 

 betwixt Tilton Wood and the Coplow. 



No : condition is now generally understood ; and well it 

 ought to be, when we consider the difhculties which we expect 

 our horses to overcome. In the first place, the pace of hounds 

 ia very considerably increased ; and this fact accounts suffi- 

 ciently for the lamentations, to which we are compelled to 

 listen, aa to the decrease of sport in modern times. "You 

 never hear now," says the querulous laudator temporis acti, 

 of fifteen miles from point to point ! Don't you ? Even this 

 position we think rai^ht be successfully assailed ; but that 

 you do not often hear of such long and extended runs is 

 very natural ; and, for the simplest of all reasons— the 



