134 UNASKED ADVICE. 



indeed,, in a general way^ is it to hunt away from Tiome 

 anywhere. The moving of horses and servants is expen- 

 sive in itself, and productive of many other expenses in 

 different ways. With the expensive way of hunting I 

 have here nothing to do ; I only profess to show how the 

 sport may be made reasonably accessible. Different 

 people have very different ideas of what is needful for the 

 pursuit of the chase. Compare, for example, the late 

 Lord Henry Bentinck with the master of the Sinnington 

 hounds or the Blencathra j yet all three are, or, I regret 

 that I must now say, were, equally good sportsmen. To 

 be sure, a man who wishes to enjoy hunting at small cost 

 must not be a very heavy weight — he ought, in fact, to 

 ride under fourteen stone ; and a man of this weight 

 will be able to mount himself suflSciently well for the 

 provinces at a moderate figure, nor need he stay at home^ 

 with hounds close by, even if he lives in ^^ the Shires.^' 

 With two sound horses, and fair luck, a man may hunt 

 on an average three days a week in open weather. His 

 amusement will last for six months in the year, and 

 sometimes more, and he will have the use of his horses 

 during the summer. With a month''s rest at the end of 

 the season, a poor man^s horses should be sufficiently 

 recruited, if they leave off their work sound, or tolerably 

 so, to make themselves pretty useful in the summer; 

 though they ought not to be exactly knocked about 

 at a very fast pace on the road, neither ought any other 

 horses j excepting perhaps those belonging to country 

 doctors, also butchers^ hacks — which latter always work 

 at a fast pace, the former doing so only on occasions. Set off 

 against the economy of hunting the fact that, not un- 

 frequently, it is stopped by frost, and that the horses have 

 be fed all the same. This is certainly a bore ; but on the 



