HAVING AN EYE TO THE MAIN CHANCE. 99 



know ; if a box or small tub of powdered lime is 

 kept in the saddle room, and such things are 

 buried in it, they will keep, it may be said, ad 

 infinitum, without care, or getting rusty. 



I need scarcely say a stove is indispensable; 

 and here, with a neatly-concealed bed, is a very 

 proper place for one man at least to sleep. Here, 

 also, in small establishments, may be the corn- 

 bin an article that I never wish to see in a 

 stable, for two reasons : it takes up room ; and the 

 horses learn its situation so well that they get 

 anxious and uneasy every time the groom goes 

 near it. It is sometimes made and used as a seat ; 

 but it is a bad plan : where a seat is desirable, it 

 should be one that falls down against the wall. 



There must be boxes, as a matter of course, 

 wherever hunters are kept ; and there should be 

 one, in case of sickness, wherever horses are lo- 

 cated : it can always do duty for other purposes 

 when not wanted for its general one. And here 

 I must give a caution not always used : so soon 

 as a sick (I do not mean a merely lame one) is 

 removed from a box, it should be immediately 

 white-washed, and the floor well saturated with 

 chloride of lime, before any other horse is put 

 into it. These do not require to be in any degree 

 the same size as those used in racing stables. As 

 places of quiet, unconfined, and undisturbed rest 

 for wearied horses, sixteen feet (or even less, if 



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