200 THE CONDITION OF HUNTERS 



and that in these days a well-bred colt, with engage- 

 ments over his head, may be said to be in training 

 from the very day he is foaled ! As to grass, there 

 certainly may be some in the paddock he is reared in, 

 but it forms a small portion of his food even in the 

 course of the first year. That a two-year-old colt 

 should win the Craven is anything but extraordinary 

 — indeed the race is made for him. The course is 

 but a little more than a mile,^ and when the weights 

 were fixed the chances must have been considered 

 equal. Were the race, however, over the B. C. in- 

 stead of where it is, where would be the two-year-old. 

 His only chance then of winning it would be to put 

 five years' old corn into him, and the recipe would be 

 worth something. 



The circumstance X. B. brings forward of Trajan, 

 taken from grass, being beaten by Match'em, is rather 

 a singular way of recommending the grazing system ; 

 and his (Trajan) having distanced two others (he does 

 not say what) in the race, does not mend the matter 

 at all ; as, for aught we know, they may have been 

 at grass also — may have bolted, or tumbled, or God 

 knows what — as it is sixty-two years since (1755) 

 the event he alludes to took place. 



When X. B. speaks of four months' training being 

 sufficient for the race-horse, he talks equally out of 

 book ; and I had nearly forgotten my good manners, 

 and said he talked something else, when he told us he 

 should be delighted to see a valuable hunter of his 

 gallop about a hard field in the summer till he was hot. 



^ Across the Flat, one mile, two furlongs, twenty-four yaxds. 



