230 RECORDS OF THE CHASE 



down. In my experience of ostlers at inns, I never 

 found many of them of much use in dressing dirty 

 hunters ; not, perhaps, in all cases from a disinclination 

 to work, because an extra quart of beer will always 

 excite that energy, but because they do not know how 

 to set about it, and very frequently, when assisting my 

 own servants, and consequently acting under their 

 directions, I have noticed that many ostlers are more 

 in the way than otherwise. 



On the subject of gruel I must also make a remark, 

 that it should on all occasions be boiled, whether it be 

 made of wheat-flour or oatmeal ; the former of which I 

 prefer. When made in the manner very commonly 

 practised — that is, some oatmeal stirred up with a 

 small quantity of cold water, to which boiling water is 

 added, and cold water again supplied to make it of the 

 required temperature — it contains no virtue whatever; 

 in fact, will sometimes produce cholic. It is the 

 mucilage formed by boiling in which the balsamic and 

 nutritive properties are contained ; and that mucilage 

 must be produced before the substance is given to the 

 horse ; in other words, he cannot concoct it in his 

 stomach. Many of my friends have argued this point 

 with me, assuming if the horse takes a pint of oatmeal, 

 which, being divested of the husks, may be considered 

 equivalent in amount of nourishment to a quart of 

 oats, and that pint of oatmeal is infused in water, he 

 will derive the same benefit he would from a quart of 

 oats, which is by no means the case. When a horse 

 eats a quart of oats he masticates them ; they pass into 

 the stomach in the ordinary way, through the agency of 

 those functions which are provided by nature for con- 

 veying food to that receptacle, and, finally, by the 

 digestive organs, they assist in the nourishment of the 

 body. But oatmeal infused in tepid water is vastly 

 different in its quality. In that liquid state it contains 

 very little nourishment, and, quickly passing into the 

 intestines, is carried off like undigested food. Similar 

 remarks apply to bran mashes. 



