io8 THE CONDITION OF HUNTERS 



When only out at night he had a small portion of hay 

 in the middle of the day, and two feeds of oats, to 

 which were added, as the weather was cold, during 

 the rest of the time he was out, a double handful of 

 beans, not split, in each feed. When in the stable, 

 by day, he was exposed to great circulation of air, 

 as the casements were taken out of the windows and 

 the door open. My neighbour's horses, seven in 

 number, had been turned out as soon as hunting was 

 over into a field of eight acres of tolerably good land, 

 always used for the purpose, with plenty of shade 

 and water, and had had no physic since the commence- 

 ment of the last season. Himself and his groom 

 entered the field with me, and I was much struck with 

 the sad appearance of the horses. The " qui color 

 albus erat nunc est contrarius alho " might have been 

 aptly applied here. There were two grey horses in 

 the field, but there was very little white about them ; 

 The black horse was anything but black, the chestnut 

 a kind of dun, and the bay horses presented a kind of 

 sickly compound of red and yellow, which it is not in 

 my power to define. There was no reflection of the 

 solar rays on their skins, and they had altogether a 

 miserable appearance. Three out of the seven had 

 coughs, their crests were low, their bellies large, and 

 their action feeble. 



On my remarking to the owner of these horses how 

 ill they looked, he observed, that they did very well 

 in that field last year, and that they had come up in 

 what he called " very good condition." — " That is 

 very possible," said I, " because last summer was 



