THE NOBLE SCIENCE. 93 



perly estimated, we should hear less of horses not being 

 fit to go till Christmas. 



It is not many years since I had occasion to remark 

 to a brother sportsman, and master of hounds, who was 

 out with me upon his best hunter, in the first week of 

 regular hunting, that his horse's breast-plate appeared 

 most uncomfortably tight across his chest, of course to 

 the confinement of his shoulders. Immediately dis- 

 mounting, he endeavoured to relieve the animal from an 

 inconvenience so manifest, but, finding the buckle either 

 rusted in its wonted station, or at its extremity, he 

 remounted, coolly observing, with a laugh, that the 

 breast-plate had not been touched since the last day of 

 the previous season, when it was easy enough, and that 

 the horse would gradually work down within its dimen- 

 sions ! ! Now this was in the month of November, w^hen 

 the horse either should have been fit to go, or should not 

 have been where he was. I forget if we had any sport 

 on that day, but, if we had, I am sure this fat horse must 

 have had reason to remember it. At Melton the thing 

 is, I believe, better understood, and, in many other 

 hunting quarters, the desiderata of condition have been 

 more attended to of late years ; but these remarks may 

 not, I trust, be thrown away upon some of my young 

 friends in the provinces, for whom they are intended. 



