182 HUNTING 



or other of tliem, or both, is always ailing, the cause 

 generally being want of condition. 



Again, we have known several instances during the 

 last few years, where gentlemen, who previously kept 

 horses exclusively for hunting purposes, have been 

 obliged to reduce their stabling establishments for 

 economical reasons. It was the harness horses who 

 were parted with, and the hunters had to experience 

 the indignity of the shafts. Only in one case out of 

 several have we heard of the hunter resenting the 

 indignity. As a rale, the horses took kindly to their 

 new work, and instead of being the worse for it, 

 improved in condition. We have also known instances 

 of horses, lame at the end of the season, come up 

 sound again in the autumn after being summered 

 between the shafts. At the annual autumn sales of 

 the London coach-horses, at Aldridge's, many of the 

 leaders are bought for hunting purposes. We have 

 heard experienced judges declare that whatever 

 else may be the matter with them, such horses 

 seldom fall lame during the hunting season. 



"Good on the road" would not appear a strong 

 recommendation now to the Leicestershire man, who 

 considers that he has not had a good day's sport 

 unless hounds race at a headlong pace, yet such was 

 the title which Mr H. Atkin selected for one of his 

 best-known drawings, executed some eighty years 

 ago, the original o f which is now in the possession of 

 Sir Walter Gilbey. But hunting, like most other 

 mundane institutions, revolves in a circle. "A good 

 hunter, quiet in harness," is now a common form of 



