THE EYE OF THE MASTER 85 



another instance of a man of small means who 

 was determined to see sport. In this case the 

 sportsman, who now, by the way, as better 

 days have come, hunts in Leicestershire, lived 

 in one of the best of our provincial countries not 

 far from London. He was a City clerk on ^100 

 a year, living, however, with his father. He 

 managed to save up enough money to buy a 

 horse that could gallop a bit and jump. He 

 kept and groomed him himself, getting a day 

 or part of a day whenever he could. In order 

 to do this he lived hard and rode hard, and that 

 he stuck to business as well as sport may be 

 inferred from the fact that he has been for 

 many years now at the head of a large con- 

 cern. But he has never failed to hunt. Cub 

 hunting was his best time, for then he could 

 get up early, see hounds, and be back in time 

 to catch his train and take his seat at the desk 

 in the City in due course. Another case I 

 know of is that of a country parson with an 

 old huntino- mare that w^as o-iven him, and on 

 which he manages even in these days — for this 

 is a modern instance — to see much sport in the 

 woodland country in which his lot is cast. 



Three things stand out from my own ex- 

 perience o{ hunting with short stables, as being- 

 advisable. The first is that you must have 

 what the grooms call a "good doer," that is 



