140 HUNTING 



joints for the other six days, when he has been 

 accustomed to a mixed menu of lighter dishes. He 

 is in reality eating food which he cannot digest, under 

 the idea that it is giving him muscular strength. 

 It gives him dyspepsia, and veritably makes his 

 hunting a burden to him. Many of the old writers 

 on sport dilate to an alarming extent on the question 

 of food. "Stonehenge" confines the hunting-man to 

 weak tea and dry bread for breakfast, presumably 

 on the grounds that a General should starve his 

 own army before leading them into battle. Others 

 treat the hunting-man as if he were a professional 

 jockey compelled to ride a certain weight to an 

 ounce, and even advise him to have every particle 

 of food weighed, and to weigh himself at least once 

 a day. 



Fortunately, the time has passed when athletics and 

 martyrdom were synonymous terms. Now, " plenty of 

 fresh air and what you like to eat and drink" has 

 become the rule. Perhaps the starving advice was 

 necessary when fox-hunters drank two or three bottles 

 of generous port after dinner and swallowed brandy 

 before breakfast. Surtees' description of hunting 

 dinner parties would only meet with contemptuous 

 ridicule if applied to the present day, and are probably 

 exaggerated when applied to the past; still, Mytton 

 was undoubtedly a hero in the hunting-field, and yet 

 "Mmrod," in his "Life of John Mytton," declares 

 that Mytton was drunk for twelve years. If strong 

 diseases require strong cures, then the old writers 

 may have been right in giving the advice which they 



