BROOD MARES AND COLTS 213 



of condition I might mention that when at Hunger- 

 ford, in January 1825, I sold one of my horses, which 

 I considered under my weight, to Mr Starkey, of Spy 

 Park in Wiltshire, who told a friend of mine afterwards 

 that he bought him more for his condition than any- 

 thing else. 



One word more to farmers. If those who follow 

 hounds, or who breed good horses without doing this, 

 would pay more attention to the condition of their 

 horses, by keeping them up in the summer, putting 

 good instead of bad flesh upon them, they would 

 be very well paid for their hunting, or their trouble. 

 The}'^ may take my word for it, there never was such 

 a demand, I might almost say outcry, for hunters as 

 there is at the present day.^ It is very well known 

 to many of my acquaintance that I have lately had 

 several earnest requests to purchase hunters for my 

 friends, but I have been quite unable to comply with 

 them. I will not say I might not have seen two or 

 three horses that may have suited them, but I could 

 not think of recommending them on account of their 

 want of condition ; for what is a hunter without 

 condition ? — a source of vexation, disappointment, 

 and danger. 



All persons do not set the same store by condition 

 that I do ; but if they were as much alive to the ad- 

 vantages of it, they could not fail to do so. The follow- 

 ing fact will best show the price I put upon it : — A blank 



^ Previous to turning'out a stag one day last season before Lord 

 Derby's hounds, I breakfasted at a gentleman's house in Surrey 

 Our party consisted of eight ; and five of them were eagerly inquiring 

 after hunters. 



