THE GROOM 133 



we believe, is often the richer and the happier man 

 of the two. Gentlemen's servants are often sadly 

 improvident. They have great temptations, it is 

 true ; but few, we fear, try to resist them. The 

 easiness of comfort is soon acquired, and the chance 

 of adverse circumstances is unpleasant to contemplate. 

 In hiring a Groom, or indeed a servant of any sort, 

 it is always advisable to get them from places rather 

 under than above those they are coming to. A re- 

 trograding servant is generally a dissatisfied servant, 

 and as they always ride in the highest hole in the 

 stirrup of their knowledge, they are very apt to think 

 it necessary to instruct the new master in the style 

 and doings of their best place ; instead of serving, 

 they assume the direction. In the country, the scale 

 of servitude is as nicely understood, and the position 

 of families as accurately settled by servants, as the 

 hereditary nobility is by Mr. Burke or the Heralds' 

 College. Grooms from great places are often full of 

 whims and conceit, and think nothing can be right 

 but what was done at Sir John's or my lord's. 

 Masters are great fools to submit to anything of the 

 sort. No two books, let alone two masters, agree 

 upon even the most ordinary point of stable manage- 

 ment. Take feeding, for instance — one man will tell 

 you that hay should be given in about the quantity of 

 i2lb. a-day ; but if you go into a barrack yard, and 

 ask a soldier what his horse gets, he will tell you 81b. 

 is the allowance. The more ignorant a Groom is, 

 the more mysterious, conceited, and pedantic he is, 

 the more he talks about his infallible receipts and 

 nostrums, known to none but himself, or confided by 

 some equally great authority. These sort of pre- 

 tenders are only for young men, the old stager knows 

 the simplicity of condition too well to be talked to in 

 that strain. One of the absurdities of the times is 

 making everything as complicated and mysterious as 

 possible, using hard words where hard words can be 



