STABLE MANAGEMENT 259 



could make them. But they took Httle trouble to 

 keep either their stables or themselves smart, so that 

 they presented an unkempt appearance even when 

 in livery ; but it must be pleaded in their favour 

 that few of the old squires cared about smart 

 liveries, and if they had cared there was not a tailor 

 outside London who could have made one. They 

 had to be content with the tailor of the local country 

 town, whose study of the sartorial art was certainly 

 not progressive, and whose customers wanted their 

 garments to stand wear and tear without paying 

 much attention to cut. 



But long before 1850 a transformation had taken 

 place not only in the liveries, but in the characters 

 of grooms. The old-fashioned country yokel was 

 not smart enough for the new-fashioned hunting 

 man. I need not dwell upon the various transitions 

 which took place in liveries before the present style 

 was adopted. But the transition in the characters 

 of the grooms deserves a few words. I am not going 

 to say a syllable against the grooms of the present 

 day, except that they are vastly superior to those 

 of twenty years ago, as were also the grooms of 

 twenty years ago to those of fifty years ago. When 

 men first came from London and other large towns 

 into the country to hunt — men who had never 

 hunted before — they were to a very large extent 

 dependent upon their grooms for their stable manage- 

 ment. They wanted men of smart appearance, with 

 an intimate knowledge of everything connected with 



