THE CONDITION OF HUNTERS 23 



tions. Their attention is turned to more important 

 subjects ; and it is from those alone who have made 

 it either the business or amusement {labor ipse voluntas) 

 of their lives to superintend the management of hunters 

 that we are to receive practical and useful directions. 

 Among the latter I may class myself. For twenty 

 years of my life I have had a stud of hunters ; and 

 although I have had two as good grooms as fall to the 

 lot of most men, I never gave them control over my 

 horses in the stable ; but acted on the principle that 

 two heads may be better than one, and that the person 

 who rides the horse is a better judge of his state than 

 the person who cleans him. 



I shall endeavour, therefore, to detail the result of 

 my own practical observations on this most essential 

 point — a point on which depends not only the place 

 which every man who rides to hounds is to maintain 

 in the field, but his safety in that place ; and — what 

 is of no small importance, from the high prices at which 

 horses have lately been sold — the safety of his horse 

 afterwards. 



In illustration of argument, or in corroboration of 

 facts, it is impossible to avoid sometimes talking of 

 oneself, particularly on such a subject as this ; but I 

 beg the reader to understand that it is my wish to 

 suggest, rather than dictate. I shall, therefore, merely 

 describe that method of treating the hunter, in his 

 preparation for the field, which I have found to be 

 the most safe and advantageous — leaving others to 

 judge of its propriety, and to adhere to their own plans, 

 if they prefer them to mine. The situation of a 



