THE LIFE OF A SPORTSINIAN 



to hiin ? — are you not sorry to see the poor beasts shut up after 

 this manner ? ' resumed the steward. 



' Indeed I am not, sir,' answered James ; ' for if it has the 

 same effect on these horses that it had last winter on Lord 

 Sandford's, I shall not have half tlie trouble with them next 

 winter that I had last.' 



' What d'ye mean, James ? ' inquired the steward. 



'I mean this, sir,' said the o^room : 'I had rather look 

 after three horses in the same condition that Lord Sandford's 

 were in all through the last season, from the very beginning 

 indeed, than after any two M^e had in our stud. They were 

 cleaned in half the time it took to clean ours after hunting; 

 and what is m<3re, they never broke out into a cold sweat, as 

 ours so often did, after we thought we had got them quite dry 

 and comfortable. Then I used to watch them when they were 

 going to cover, in the morning, along with our horses, espe- 

 cially before Christmas. Ours would be in a sweat if the 

 morning was at all close, whilst my Lord's would be as dry 

 as a bone. I thought to myself, sir, tliat this must be a great 

 advantage to these horses over ours, when they came to follow 

 the liounds through a run, as, for my own part, I always feel 

 weak after sweating much in my work. So you see, sir, if it 

 is a little hard on master's horses to be pent up in these places 

 all the summer, instead of galloping about and playing in the 

 park, they get the best of it in the winter, by being in so much 

 better heart for their work. Then, again, they are not tor- 

 mented with the flies here, as they are in the park, for I have 

 often watched the old Squire's hunters in the summer, and been 

 really sorry to see liow they were plagued. It was nothing 

 but stamp, stamp, stamp, all day long, and' (addressing the 

 huntsman) 'you remember, Dick, that you always said your 

 famous old mare, the Queen, would not have turned roarer, nor 

 Stumps have gone broken- winded, if they had not been turned 

 out to grass.' 



' I certainly did so,' replied Dick, ' and think so still. Indeed, 

 I am something inclined, Mr. Robson, to be of James's way 

 of thinking as to keeping hunters in the summer months. I 

 have often said to myself, when I have seen tlie liorses I ride 

 with the hounds galloping about this park, where the ground 

 has been as hard as a barn-floor, " surely I give you enough of 

 galloping in the hunting season." Then, again, they come up 



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