84 THE DIFFERP:XT breeds of ENGLISH HORSES. 



be omitted ; but the three words, air, exercise, food, contain the grand 

 secret and art of training. 



The old hunter may be iairly ridden twice, or, if not ^vith any very hard 

 days, three times in the week ; but, after a thoroughly trying day, and 

 evident distress, three or four days' rest should be allowed. They who are 

 merciful to their horses, allow about thirty days' work in the course of the 

 season, with gentle exercise on each of the intermediate days, and par- 

 ticularly a sweat on the day before hunting. There is an account, _ how- 

 ever, of one horse who followed the fox-hounds seventy-five times m one 

 season. This feat has never been exceeded. 



We recollect to have seen the last Duke of Richmond but one, although 

 an old man, and when he had the gout in his hands so severely that he 

 was obhged to be lifted on horseback, and both arms being passed through 

 the reins, were crossed on his breast, galloping down the steepest part of 

 Bow Hill, in the neighbourhood of Goodwood, almost as abrupt as the 

 ridge of an ordinary house, and cheering on the hounds with all the ardour 

 of a youth. 



Sir John ]\Ialcolm (in his Sketches of Persia) gives an amusmg account 

 of the impression which a fox-hunt in the EngUsh style made on an Arab 

 ' I was entertained by listening to an Ai^ab peasant, who, with animated 

 gestui-es, was narrating to a group of his countrymen all he had seen of 

 this noble hunt. " There came the fox," said he, pointing ^vith a crooked 

 stick to a clump of date-trees, " there he came at a gi-eat rate. I hallooed, 

 but nobody heard me, and I thought he must get away ; but when he got 

 quite oat of sight, up came a large spotted dog, and then another and 

 another They all had their noses to the ground, and gave tongue — whow, 

 whow whow, so loud, I was frightened. Away went these devils, who 

 soon found the poor animal. After them galloped the Formgees (a cor- 

 ruption of Frank, the name given to a European over all Asia), shoutmg 

 and trying to make a noise louder than the dogs. No wonder they killed 

 the fox among them." ' ^^. . ,. ,, 



The Treasurer Burleigh, the sage councillor of Queen Ehzabeth, could 

 not enter into the pleasures of the chase. Old Andrew Fuller relates a 



quaint story of him : — ^ ., t t -r> i • i j. 



'When some noblemen had gotten William Cecil, Lord Burleigh, to 

 ride with them a hunting, and the sport began to be cold, "What caU you 

 this ? " said the treasurer. " Oh ! now the dogs are at fault," was the reply. 

 " Yea," quoth the treasurer, "take me again in such a fault, and I'll give 



you leave to punish me." ' -, , i , r.^. 



In former times it was the fashion for women to hunt almost as otten 

 and as keenly as the men. Queen Elizabeth was extremely fond of the 

 chase Rowland Whyte, in a letter to Sir Robert Sidney, says, ' Her 

 Majesty is well, and excellently disposed to hunting ; for every second day 

 she is on horseback, and continues the sport long.' , • , 



This custom soon afterwards began to decline, and the jokes and 

 sarcasms of the witty court of Charles II. contributed to discountenance it. 



It is a curious circumstance, that the first Avork on hunting that pro- 

 ■ceeded from the press was from the pen of a female, Juliana Barnes, or 

 Berners, the sister of Lord Berners, and prioress of the nunnery of Sope- 

 well, about the year 1481. • ,^ -i ^ 



The difi'erence in the pace, and the consequent difference m the breed 

 of the horse, have effected a considerable alteration in the usage of the 

 hunter It is the almost invariable practice for each sportsman to have 

 two or sometimes three horses in the field, and after a moderate day s 

 sport the horse has his three or four days' rest, and no fewer than five or 

 six after a severe run. When a little more speed was introduced mto tho 



