STABLE MANAGEMENT 261 



least, the new school of hunting men had begun 

 to see that it would be the wisest plan to learn for 

 themselves something about stable management. 



It is, of course, impossible to give exact statistics of 

 the future of these grooms who had yielded to the 

 temptation of imposing upon their masters. As far as 

 I have been able to gather, many had managed to 

 feather their nests so well that they were able to 

 take public-houses, or to set up in business as horse 

 dealers, 



A few mended their ways before they were found 

 out ; but I am afraid the majority sank lower and 

 lower in the social scale until they became altogether 

 submerged. But in their way they had done good 

 work, for they had smartened up the old-fashioned 

 grooms. Amongst few classes of people is the 

 rivalry keener than amongst grooms. It is the main 

 ambition of Mr. A's groom to turn his horses out 

 looking more fit than Mr. B's groom. So the old- 

 fashioned grooms were dragged into the competition, 

 and though they did not at first come well out of 

 it, they managed to learn a lot from their new rivals. 

 Again, these smart grooms of dubious honesty took 

 good care that their understrappers did their work 

 thoroughly without teaching them about secret com- 

 missions. The result was that the next generation 

 of grooms were smart men, well educated in stable 

 lore, and their successors, the present generation, 

 have improved upon them. 



The great thing before engaging a groom is to 



