CONDITION OF HUNTERS RESUMED 261 



impression. About two years back a hard-riding 

 Warwickshire sportsman addressed me thus : " We 

 are highly indebted to you for your excellent plan of 

 treating hunters in the summer." " Pardon me," 

 I said, " it is not my plan ; it was known and prac- 

 tised before I was bom." " That might be," replied 

 my friend, " but to yourself is due the credit of having 

 made manifest what was not made manifest before." 

 This, then, is the credit I take ; and here ends my 

 preface. 



I am not aware that, at the present moment, I 

 have anything very particular to add on the subject 

 of summering the hunter — nothing certainly as far 

 as theory can direct me ; but a little practical matter 

 must always be welcome to those who have studs. At 

 the conclusion of last hunting season {i.e. the season 

 of 1826 and 1827) I hired Thomas Morris, Mr Hay's 

 groom, for the Marquis of Cleveland ; and having 

 heard from several of the very superior condition of 

 Lord Cleveland's hunters this last winter, I wrote to 

 Thomas Morris to know how they had been treated 

 in the summer, and I here transcribe his answer. 

 ** January 2, 1828. My stud is looking as well as any 

 I ever saw, and all the gentlemen in the country praise 

 them much. I have not a lame horse among the 

 twenty-three we have here (Newton House), which 

 is not often the case in any stables at this period of the 

 year. Part of the stud were kept in boxes all the 

 summer, and the remainder were kept in stables all 

 day, and turned out at night. Each horse had a 

 bushel of corn per week, and came up very well. I 



