PERSONAL HINTS FOR HUNTING MEN 143 



water as being easiest of digestion, and digestion is 

 the main thing to be considered. The familiar B. 

 and S. only makes a man like an inflated air balloon ; 

 and the tea or coffee drinker invariably requires a 

 liqueur before he feels fit to get into the pigskin, 

 which proves that the tea or coffee must be bad 

 for him if he needs a "digestive" to correct its 

 influence. 



Like the liquid, so the solid food should be both 

 sustaining and easy of digestion, such as the lean of 

 mutton chops, devilled chicken, or cold meat. Dry 

 toast without butter is preferable to bread. Perhaps, 

 if we had to sum up our ideas of a hunting break- 

 fast, we could not describe it better than as the 

 light lunch of the ordinary Englishman, for the hunt- 

 ing tyro must bear in mind that he has to go through 

 a long day's physical exercise with very limited 

 opportunities for refreshment. 



But what ought that limited refreshment to be ? 

 Certainly the more limited the better. The time 

 when a huge bottle-shaped flask and a sandwich-case 

 like a small portmanteau were common appendages 

 to the saddle is past. Perhaps their absence is a 

 sacrifice to the fashion which demands that there 

 should be nothing superfluous about horse or 

 rider. Some men arrange a compromise by making 

 their second horsemen carry their luncheon encum- 

 brances ; but, for those who cannot afford the luxury of 

 second horses, and wish their appearance in the hunt- 

 ing-field to be without a flaw, there is no alternative 

 but the small pocket flask and the smallest quantity 



