THE END OP THE SEASON. 



AT the end of the hunting season comes the question ef 

 " What is to be done with the horses ? " Either they 

 are to be kept through the summer, and brought out for 

 the next season, after all the advantages which accrue 

 from a really good " summering/' or they are to be sold, 

 and their summer keep saved. This last course of pro- 

 ceeding is not an uncommon one, among young horse 

 masters especially. What the advantage of it consists in 

 is not very apparent, unless, as has been suggested, 

 horses are sold at the hammer for ready money, and 

 bought from some dealers on credit. With the excep- 

 tion of this decided advantage, the man who keeps his 

 stud through the summer has " a pull," as it is elegantly 

 termed, over the one who has sold, and bought a fresh 

 lot when hunting recommences, supposing the two studs 

 to have been tolerably good to begin with, or rather 

 tolerably good at the end of the season. 



It occasionally happens that a man possesses two or 

 three wholly useless brutes, of which he cannot possibly 

 dispose unless he sacrifices their more valuable stable 

 companions ; and this is no doubt often the cause why an 

 entire stud is submitted to public competition. 



All that the buyer has to do in such a case is to mind 

 that he does not get hold of the wrong horse, which he is 

 very likely to do unless he either knows the animals per- 

 sonally, or has a reliable friend who is acquainted with 

 their merits and failings. 



