THE NOBLE SCIENCE. 87 



one, at a time ; and, moreover, if you have plenty of 

 h:inds, they are not hkely to keep so steady a pace in 

 company as alone. By taking some at different hours, on 

 favourable mornings, you may, without difficulty sweat 

 six or seven horses in a week ; and, with good luck, may 

 preserve an evenness of condition in the stud, to compare 

 with that which is the pride of the kennel. In proportion 

 to the decrease of superfluous flesh, will be the increase of 

 muscle ; and it is by this means alone that you can get 

 rid of that terrible obstacle to exertion, that great cause 

 of death and destruction in the field — the inside fat, 

 which, during a period of temporary inactivity, will accu- 

 mulate — which is beyond the reach of drugs, and can 

 only be thus dissipated, through the pores of the skin. 



If more were thought of the preparation of horses — 

 of the training necessary to qualify them for a burst of 

 forty minutes, across a country in which they must gallop 

 nearly at their utmost speed, though fetlock deep in 

 holding soil, and, after a breather over some acres, pro- 

 bably against a hill, must be enabled to spring over their 

 fences, to 



" Lead the field, top the barred gate, 



O'er the deep ditch exulting bound, and brush 

 The thorny twining hedge — " 



if, I say, the qualifications for such exertions were pro- 

 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 



