26o CENTURY OF ENGLISH FOX-HUNTING 



stables. Even in these days such a man, if he be 

 sober and honest, is a rara avis ; but in those days 

 to find such a man was hke searching for a needle 

 in a whole cartload of hay. The reasons are 

 obvious. The commercial men and their sons 

 might be good judges of livery, but in everything 

 connected with a hunting establishment, from the 

 purchase of a hunter to the purchase of a curry 

 comb, they were at the mercy of their grooms, who 

 took a commission on every article that went into 

 the stable. We can hardly blame them when we 

 read nearly every day in the papers of men holding 

 high positions in the commercial world accepting 

 secret commissions in connection with company 

 promoting. The temptation to impose upon the 

 ignorance and credulity of the master was too great 

 for the groom to resist, and the new order of hunting 

 men had to pay for their experience. But it was only 

 a matter of time before they learnt their experience. 

 The intercourse in the hunting field with men who 

 were cognisant of stable management soon taught 

 them that they were being imposed upon. There were 

 other reasons, too, for the abolition of this class of 

 grooms, namely, that competition prevented saddlers 

 and other tradespeople from giving such high com- 

 missions. A {qsn saddlers and hay and corn dealers 

 were exposed, and a number of grooms were sum- 

 marily dismissed without a character. The veterinary 

 surgeons had nearly put a stop to the horse-coping 

 which had been prevalent ; and last, but far from 



