COST OF HOUNDS 289 



tained with princely magnificence at an expense not 

 under £3500 or £4000 per annum. The average may 

 be estimated at £1400 a year, which makes a total of 

 £126,000, circulated through the medium of hounds 

 and horses. That is, however, a trifle compared with 

 the expenditure of those gentlemen who compose the 

 fields, of which it is difficult to form an estimate. The 

 Yorkshire Gazette published an article last year cal- 

 culating that there were one thousand hunting men in 

 that county, keeping on an average four horses each, 

 at a cost of £50 for each horse per annum. It appears 

 a high estimate, but Yorkshire is a great horse- 

 breeding county and is particularly celebrated for its 

 sportsmen. Taking one country with another, and 

 averaging the number of horses kept in each for the 

 exclusive purposes of hunting at one hundred and 

 seventy — which from observation and the best data I 

 can obtain I believe to be near the mark — we have 

 fifteen thousand three hundred horses employed in this 

 service. According to the proportion in Yorkshire this 

 appears to be a very low computation ; but it must be 

 remembered that many of the two days a-week packs 

 are not in populous countries, and many of the at- 

 tendants upon them do not keep more than a single 

 horse. Calculating the keep of each horse at £40 a 

 year— still below the Yorkshire estimate — ^the aggre- 

 gate amount will be £6800, which, added to £1400 

 for the expenses of the hounds, causes an expenditure 

 of £8200 per annum, as the average allowance for the 

 ninety packs, which is circulated in the agricultural 

 districts. To this may be added a host of contingent 

 expenses which it would be utterly impossible to com- 

 pute. 



In everj'^ hunting country, and with the exception of 

 the mining or over-populous districts, there are very 

 few parts of England which are not hunted ; the 

 resident farmers or other persons breeding, rearing, or 

 purchasing horses likely to make hunters can, if kept 

 in condition, always command remunerative prices for 

 T 



