246 CENTURY OF ENGLISH FOX-HUNTING 



can drink when he is thirsty. The old habit of 

 giving horses their water out of a bucket at stated 

 intervals is barbarous. It is like Fagin telling Oliver 

 Twist, when he presented him with a glass of hot 

 gin and water on the night of his arrival at the 

 Thieves' Inn, that he must drink it off directly, 

 because another gentleman wanted the tumbler. 

 The stomach of a horse is not like the boiler of 

 an engine, though many people fail to see the 

 difference. 



Let me state here that no cupboards should be 

 kept in a stable, as used to be the custom, but only 

 shelves, on which nothing but the actual grooming 

 utensils should be placed, excepting where carriage 

 horses are kept, when a couple of pegs are necessary, 

 on which to hang harness, while harnessing or un- 

 harnessing. Everything except the actual grooming 

 utensils should be kept in the saddle-room. There 

 ousht not even to be a corn bin in the stable. In 

 regard to this subject, I think that we have improved 

 upon our forefathers, for most of us insist that our 

 stables should be devoid of the litter, which used to 

 be a prominent object in stables of the olden time, 

 and take care that our saddle-rooms do not resemble 

 that of the Dragon Inn Yard in Handley Cross^ 

 wherein Mr. Benjamin or Binjimin regaled himself at 

 the expense of other people with gin and tobacco. 

 The description given by Mr. Surtees of this saddle- 

 room is applicable to most of the saddle-rooms of a 

 century ago ; therefore I quote it in extenso. 



