48R The Book of the Horse. 



There are several kinds of stoves suitable for the bed-rooms of a cottage the principal 

 inhabitants of which are absent most of the hunting-day : for example, those American stoves in 

 which coke only is burned, which combine the advantage of close and open fires. In these 

 the fire may be laid, and a fine blazing heat obtained ten minutes after a match has been 

 applied, when the doors may be thrown open. They are also capital for keeping a kettle 

 boiling. 



Mr. Walter Raleigh Trevelyan, writing from the Royal Institution, in December, 1874, to 

 a contemporary, observes : — " For seven years I have found that if you can successfully heat 

 the lungs of your house — your halls and passages — you may defy the open door to make you 

 shiver. Every house has its kitchen fire summer and winter; let every kitchen have its stove- 

 boiler, whence let hot water be conveyed to a ' coil ' of 4-inch pipes in your hall, and thence 

 let it pass, by a small 2-inch pipe, to a cistern for hot water at the top of the house, and you 

 will have a well-warmed, well-ventilated, and comfortable house. All this can be obtained 

 with a small additional expense of say ^^25 for a fair-sized house, and we shall be able to 

 retain our ' cheerful open grate ' and do without the ' close stove.' " 



If the stable is close to the house, the same apparatus may warm and dry the saddle- 

 room and supply hot water from a tap ; but if the stable is at an inconvenient distance, a 

 separate apparatus must be provided. It is a very great mistake to permit the grooms to be 

 dependent on the cook for supplies of hot water. 



It is important that there should be convenient independent access to the stables from 

 the cottage in all weathers. If it does not exist, it should be made, in the shape of a dry 

 and, if possible, covered passage. 



The hand-lamps used in the stable should be fitted with flat hooks, so as to hang either 

 on the walls or on the stall-posts. A hand-lamp with a powerful reflector, such as is used 

 by railway policemen, is a very useful article in a country house if always kept trimmed and 

 in order. A good lamp hoisted on a pole at the lodge-gate, about the time that the sports- 

 men are expected home, is a comfortable beacon to the weary. Lamps burning mineral oils 

 have of late years been brought to such perfection, and are sold at such low prices, that it 

 is ridiculous to use even out of doors the old tallow-dip and horn lantern. 



All the above suggestions may be carried out, if planned as a whole, at a very trifling 

 addition to the inevitable expenses of a hunting-box. A cold house, smoky chimneys, a 

 dearth of water, hot and cold, ill-ventilated draughty rooms, will make a party, otherwise 

 prepared to be merry, silent, sulky, and quarrelsome. And this is particularly true as regards 

 bed-rooms, where the old-fashioned grates burn a great deal of coal, give very little warmth, 

 and create a fearful draught of cold air when the fire goes out. Roberts's portable terra-cotta 

 slow combustion stove should be in the bed-rooms of every hunting-box. 



In the same way, rooms amply warmed become stuffy and provocative of headaches when 

 ventilation is neglected. Tobin's ventilating tubes cost little, and give fresh air without draught. 



The doors of old-fashioned country houses seldom shut well. An amateur carpenter can 

 for a few shillings make a most comfortable double door with a deal frame first covered 

 with canvas, and then with one of the many patterns of leather paper. 



Presuming that the wet and weary sportsman will be received into a well-warmed, 

 well-ventilated house, with simple conveniences for getting rid of his wet garments, and per- 

 forming his preliminary ablution with the least possible tax on the services of a limited 

 number of servants, — that, on returning from the general undressing and bath-rooms to his 

 bed-room, he finds a small brisk fire, an arm-chair or sofa, on which, wrapped in his travelling 



