238 CENTURY OF ENGLISH FOX-HUNTING 



tidiness. Simplex niunditiis should be the motto for 

 a stable and for the saddle-room. 



In the case of stables built at the beginning of the 

 century, we often find that they are situated in a 

 valley on account of the warmth and shelter ; but if 

 the windows and doors fit properly and the ventila- 

 tors act properly, so that there is no unhealthy 

 draught, the question of shelter need not arise. The 

 temperature should always be sixty degrees — winter 

 and summer — but, whatever may have been the case 

 a hundred years ago, it is not necessary now to build 

 a stable in a low valley in order to obtain this 

 temperature. The groom who keeps the stable hot 

 in order to make the coats of his horses shine is like 

 the Chinaman who burnt his house to roast his pig. 

 What is required is that 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. In regard to the 

 construction of the walls and the roofing, however, 

 it must be admitted that many of the old hard stone 

 walls with thatched roofs make more healthy stables 

 than the modern brick substitutes, which are too 

 often built only for effect. Bricks, especially new 

 bricks, absorb moisture, thus making a stable damp. 

 In the absence of a stone quarry, corrugated iron 

 lined with wood forms the best wall, but there must 

 be ample space between the iron and the wood — the 

 more ample the better — which space should be filled 



