124 THE NOBLE SCIENCE. 



In conclusion of my prose in behalf of a good and 

 deservedly valued hunter, let me recommend, at the 

 close of his career, that he be not subjected to those 

 vicissitudes which have been so aflfectingly depicted by 

 Dibdin, in the poem from which I have more than once 

 found occasion to make quotations ; inasmuch as it is 

 unhappily flir less in accordance with the poetical 

 licence of fiction, than with sad reality. — When he will 

 carry you no longer well with hounds, do not make him 

 a drudge ; send him to the kennel, save him a world of 

 woe by having him shot, and devoting his carcass to 

 the boiling-house. There can be no objection to giving 

 him a few years run in park or paddock, if you have 

 them convenient, provided that his life is not pro- 

 tracted beyond the power of enjoying it ; and a mare 

 may, perhaps, breed clever stock long after she has 

 retired from service : but if you consign them to the 

 work of the farm, or road, and should lose sight of 

 them, — the pride of your stable, the horse that has 

 borne you faithfully, thtit has gained glory, as well 

 for his master as himself — the favoured of all favour- 

 ites — may end his days in the manner thus too justly 

 described : — 



" Till at length having laboiir'd, drudged early and late, 

 ' Bow'd down by degrees, he bends on to his fate — 



Blind, old, lean, and feeble, he tugs round a mill. 



Or draws sand till the sand of his honr-glass stands still — 



And now, cold and lifeless, exposed to the view, 



In the very same cart which he yesterday drew. 



While a pitying crowd his sad relics surrounds, 



The high- mettled racer is sold for the hounds." 



