146 THE HUNTING FIELD 



sees where to apply, and the servant stands exonerated. 

 Grooms, hunting ones in particular, may rely upon it 

 that gentlemen know the price and value of most 

 things just as well as they do, and it does not follow 

 because a master is not always storming or kicking 

 up a row that he does not observe what is wrong. A 

 dishonest servant is sure to " catch it " sooner or later. 



But if we deprecate the country inn yard, what shall 

 we say to the abomination of some London livery 

 stable ones. Why, in the words of the author of the 

 "Young Groom's Guide and Valet's Directory," that a 

 few w^eeks at such places has been the ruin of many 

 a young man. There is nothing, writes he, " but 

 drinking, tossing, colting, &c. going on from morning 

 to night; it begins, as Blacky says, by drinking for 

 dry, and then comes drinking for drinky, and so on 

 to the end of the chapter." Purl the first thing in 

 the morning before their eyes are hardly open ; porter 

 at lunch, porter at dinner, and again a double dose 

 at night. Then, there they are the next morning, 

 some with a splitting head-ache ; some so sick and 

 squeamish that nothing but a hair of the same dog 

 will cure them ; and the cry is, " d — n it, I cannot 

 do my work without my half-pint of ' purl.' Well, 

 away they go for this precious stuff, and, at the corner, 

 probably meet with some more ' purl drinkers ; ' and 

 then it is nothing but tossing up and tossing down, 

 till they return back, half stupified and muddled 

 before they begin their work, and are soon obliged to 

 take another draught to quench the thirst and fever 

 produced by the first." 



That is a sad picture, but we do not believe an 

 overdrawn one of some of these places, and masters 

 should pause ere they consign a lad to such a scene 

 of temptation. 



One of the most important duties of a Hunting 

 Groom is taking horses out over night, and making 

 the best of bad stables. Fourteen miles is as far as 



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