Breeding of Hunters. 233 



the largest in England for made hunters. Sporting 

 foreigners zxo. penetres with its fame, and rush to see 

 it and the sales of blood-yearlings at Doncastere, with 

 as much energy as their agriculturists demand to be 

 led to " de beetroot," the instant they set foot from 

 one of Ben Revett's chaises, on their Tiptree shrine. 

 We have it, in fact, on " Scribble's" authority, that an 

 elderly German Baron, not very long since, assured 

 his English visitor, when they had drunk to the death 

 and memory of their last wild boar, that if now he 

 could only visit Horncastle Fair, he could die happy ! 

 Dealers and foreigners begin to be rife in its neigh- 

 bourhood about the fifth of August, and there are still 

 some lingerers on the twenty-first. Baron Rothschild's 

 agent rarely comes, but purchases young horses at all 

 prices from 4<D/. to 3OO/., out of the best hunting 

 stables in Yorkshire and Lincolnshire. The Welsh- 

 men bring nothing now ; but the Irish-bred horses are 

 to be found in numbers hardly equal to the demand. 

 It takes a man some time to get accustomed to their 

 buck-fencing style (which a clever, determined rider 

 can soon modify) ; and when a novice tries, for 

 instance, to follow The Essex on one, and finds it 

 thrusting itself with its dainty heel-touch off those 

 huge banks half way across the next field, he begins 

 to fancy that he will never come to earth again. The 

 great majority of them are called thorough-bred, but 

 not exactly according to the English standard, which 

 makes them about seven-eighths bred. 



The hunting humour of the present day inclines 

 very much to size, though welter weights, as a general 

 rule, get along best on apparently small but even 

 horses, rather under than over fifteen-three. The 

 great majority of hunting men, if they can possibly 

 afford it, like to ride with at least a stone in hand ; 

 and thus little horses, however clever, and up to ten 

 or eleven stone, do not find ready purchasers as of 

 yore, even among " the light division." The veteran 



