CLOTHING 79 



struck me as being a great performance, considering 

 the Captain's weight, and the strength of the country 

 (the Bicester) in which he hunted. 



General rules cannot be individually applied ; but 

 there is one respecting a hunter which I have held 

 inviolable ; and that is, that under all circumstances, 

 whether the intervals between his hunting have been 

 long or short, he should have a sweat, and go for a 

 mile nearly at the top of his speed on the day before 

 hunting. I have generally adopted the following 

 plan : — 



Let some heavy clothes be put on him, and, with 

 a light weight on his back, let him go, at a gentle rate 

 six or eight times around a large field that rides a 

 little deep, till he sweats kindly. Let him be followed 

 to the place by a man with some dry clothes and a 

 scraper, and, taking him into some building, or under 

 a warm hedge, let him be well scraped, and have on 

 his dry clothes. Then, if short of work, let him have 

 a good gallop for a mile, and walk home. This treat- 

 ment, with proper care, is unattended with any danger 

 of catching cold, and, if, followed by a proper allow- 

 ance of hay and water, will give him a wonderful advan- 

 tage over those horses which have not been doing what 

 he has done, provided he drop into a quick thing with 

 hounds the next day. I have seen hunters led to be 

 sweated by a boy riding a hack ; but however great 

 an advocate I may be for preserving horses' legs by 

 keeping weight off them as much as possible, yet a 

 horse cannot, in my opinion, be worthy the name of 

 a hunter if he cannot carry a boy in his exercise. 



