THE NOBLE SCIENCE. 89 



through the winter. When you consider what a hunter 

 is called upon to perfonn, it is not extraordinary that so 

 many fail, but that so few are killed, considering how 

 little attention is bestowed, in comparison with what is 

 required, to prepare them properly for their work. 

 Nothing but the glorious uncertainty of sport, the acci- 

 dental circumstance of being out several times before 

 there is anything to be done, saves half the horses in 

 a provincial country from suffering the penalty of neglect 

 in training. I use the term training, because nothing 

 less than training will suffice. We all know that a race- 

 horse cannot be brought up to his form, or expected to 

 be fit to run, with less than three months of active pre- 

 paration. He is expected only to gallop his best over a 

 certain space, for the most part, of level turf. We know 

 the difficulty of preparing him properly for this, yet we 

 suddenly require a hunter to do ten times more, with one- 

 tenth part of the rehearsals in the part he has to perform. 

 Some people, it is true, indulge their horses with a look at 

 the beagles in October ; ride them a gallop, perhaps, once 

 in the week round the park; and, in describing a favourite 

 to be still fat as a pig, and to have blown like a porpoise, 

 they will speak of his having plenty of flesh to come off, 

 and talk of his good case as of a matter of congratula- 

 tion to themselves. So it might have been about the 

 first week in August, for it is well to see hunters improve 

 in flesh, upon green meat, and good summering ; but they 



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