THE CONDITION OF HUNTERS 33 



at liberty to gorge themselves uncontrolled is fre- 

 quently productive of diseases of various kinds. Nor, 

 indeed, can we wonder at it. Habit, or rather custom, 

 cannot so far overcome Nature as to admit of an 

 animal being kept eight months in the year in a warm 

 stable, and in an equal temperature, and the other 

 four to be exposed to the noon-tide heat and mid- 

 night cold with impunity. These extremes cannot 

 fail to produce an increased action of the arterial 

 system. Inflammation often attacks (perhaps un- 

 perceived) those organs which are most readily in- 

 fluenced by local irritation ; hence blindness, and 

 what is vulgarly and stupidly called " a grass cough " 

 — ending in broken wind, or roaring — are produced. 



I have hitherto appeared to have been speaking of 

 the evil of turning out hunters to grass, as far only as 

 regards the state of their bodies, without a reference 

 to that of their legs and feet, which have generally 

 been the chief consideration with those who have 

 pursued that plan. I have, however, no hesitation 

 in saying that the idea of a summer's run at grass 

 being beneficial to the legs of a hunter is a most 

 erroneous one, and that with respect to the feet, they 

 may, by proper management in the stable or loose 

 house, derive all those advantages which they would 

 receive from grass. As what I am going to say on 

 this subject may be contrary to the generally received 

 opinion of many, I shall be careful to assert nothing 

 but what I have confirmed by actual experience. I 

 have had in my stable, as all men who have kept them 

 must have had, two hunters with their legs equally 



