372 BANYAN DAYS. 



lowed himself astonished that they could carry his 

 weight better, faster, and longer than his own. I 

 was not ; they had wind for me, and a puff or two 

 left for even his four-stone extra weight. The pre- 

 sence of weight tells awfully no doubt, but the ab- 

 sence of wind is a regular stopper. 



Without arrogating to myself the province of 

 adviser to any one, I may, perhaps, be permitted to 

 state where I think some people act injudiciously in 

 regard to the treatment of hunters on and about 

 hunting days, so far as regards fasting them. It is 

 quite true that we want the hunter in as good wind 

 as the racer, and neither are fit for their purpose 

 with anything bordering on a full stomach : there is 

 this difference, however, between what we require 

 of the two horses. The race-horse is only called on 

 for exertion on an average of, perhaps, four or five 

 minutes, but the hunter has as many hours' work 

 before him, and must have something in him to 

 support that exertion, and fasting horses as long as 

 some grooms do is not likely to afford this support. 

 A bucket of water and a rack of hay are not quite 

 what we would wish to give a horse on a hunting 

 morning. Nor would a pot of porter and a large 

 beef-steak be just the sort of breakfast for a man 

 intending to run four miles. But if the man had a 

 walk of two hours and a half to go before running, 

 and his run was not to commence before eleven 

 o' clock, a moderate breakfast of a chop and a bit of 

 stale bread, or a couple of biscuits at six, would not 

 make him run a bit the worse, on the contrary, the 

 better for it. If he had only one hundred yards to 

 go this support would not be necessary. With dogs 

 the case is different : their digestion is slower, they 



