374 HEIRS AND HUNTERS. 



at six the next, and lie should have it, always had, 

 and I never found any perceptible remains of it at 

 eleven. Let it be observed when I say a handful I 

 mean it. Every medical man will say never fast 

 from breakfast to dinner, " take a biscuit, or even 

 half of one, or your stomach will probably be too weak 

 to relish your dinner." I am quite sure many 

 hunters cannot feed on their return home, from the 

 powers of the stomach being exhausted by too long 

 fasting. Half the ordinary run of grooms, if they 

 intend to give two horses half their allowance of water, 

 fill a bucket, and, when the first horse has taken his 

 half, may be seen hallooing at him, and, figuratively 

 speaking, hammering him about the head to get 

 him to take it from the bucket : when done, the dis- 

 satisfied animal keeps knuckering and fidgeting about 

 all the time the other is enjoying the draught the first 

 considered as destined for him. " Fill what you take, 

 but drink what you fill/' is commonly said by a host : 

 the spirit of this should invariably be acted on in a 

 stable. 



The youngster in his nurse's lap, if he promises to 

 become a fox-hunter, and consequently has some 



d 1 in him, will roar like an embryo bull if the 



cup is taken from him before it is empty ; nay, will 

 hold on to it like a Trojan : put in the cup what is 

 proper, and let him finish it, he gives a grunt and a 

 " hah " of satisfaction and feels himself happy ; why 

 not (where we can advantageously do so) gratify the 

 feelings of a hunter as much as those of the heir to 

 an estate ? 



If the race-horse had nothing to do but come out 

 and run his race once a month for six months in the 

 year, he would have a very gentlemanly idle sort of 



