THE STABLE IN A FROST. 89 



combined strengtli and breeding ? Where, again^ is the 

 tborough-bred hunter who is honestly up to a greater 

 weight than twelve stone — that is, to carry it, and go on 

 doing sOj coming out in his turn ? 



Out of a given number of hunters, picked at random 

 out of good studs, what is the percentage of those who 

 do not " hit themselves ^^ somewhere ? And what fault 

 is much worse than this ? How many are there equal to 

 the old-fashioned work of going fourteen miles to covert, 

 hunting, and returning the same distance three days a 

 fortnight ? — this, mind, in a good country. There are 

 some woodland and such like districts where the actual 

 hunting is the easiest part of the day^s work to the 

 horses of the field. Kennel horses have a day's work 

 each hunting day, whether the meet be at Waterloo Gorse 

 or on the side of an unpronounceably -named Welsh hill ; 

 but they have shorter distances to covert than the others, 

 and always, where it is feasible, draw homewards. The 

 hunter of the present days goes to covert by rail as often 

 as not when the distance exceeds ten miles, and the same 

 accommodating conveyance not unfrequently takes him 

 home again ; and even if he does go by road, the roads 

 of the present day are rather more easily travelled over 

 than those of fifty years since. Shoeing is improved; 

 but are not unsound feet as common as ever, and more so? 

 The fact is, as has been remarked already by a talented 

 sporting author, that we have a breed of horses selected 

 for weediness and unsoundness. Farmers, and others 

 who should know better, use the cheapest sire, who is also 

 the most unsound. Like begets like, and screws are 

 sown broadcast. Q. E. D. But is it only our hunters 

 that have deteriorated ? How about foxes ? How many 

 runs of twelve miles from point to point are there in any 



