80 THE HORSE AND HIS RIDER. 



In deference and in reference to this law of Nature, it 

 may truly be added that the proprietor of a valuable 

 stud of horses would gain a great deal of money as 

 well as ensure safety if he would select and set apart, 

 say two of them for his groom to ride to covert, leading 

 by his side, with an empty saddle, the horse that is to 

 hunt; by which arrangement the cheap hack, which 

 from the covert-side has only to return to his stable, 

 would carry, and the costly hunter which is to endure 

 the toil of a long day would for two, three, and occa- 

 sionally four hours be relieved from the weight of about 

 a sack of oats, to say nothing of but too often a pair of 

 hard and heavy hands; and thus the wealthy rider, on 

 descending from the box of his four-in-hand drag, would, 

 at a saving rather than an expenditure of money, have 

 secured for himself the benefit of mounting a fresh 

 hunter, instead of one more or less tired by what in our 

 statistical returns are designated "preventive causes." 



HOW TO BEING A HUNTER HOME. 



Of the long list of hunters annually killed by what 

 is called " a severe day," about one-third may be said 

 to have died from bad riding, and two-thirds by impro- 

 per treatment after the run was over. 



