HUNTING FROM LONDON. 283 



There is a third way in which hunting may, after a fashion, 

 be enjoyed by a man compelled to a life in London ; he may 

 'job.' There are men, of course, in all the great hunting 

 centres, in all towns of any importance situate in a hunting 

 country, whose business it is to provide the casual sportsman 

 with a beast on which to take his pleasure with the hounds. 

 It would be unfair to say that many a good day's hunting 

 is not enjoyed in this way. The writer's own experience of 

 hired hunters is confined to the livery stables of Oxford, and 

 many a good run has he enjoyed et militavit non sine gloria 

 with a partner derived from those sources. But the under- 

 graduate is a thing apart; he forms a human class by himself, 

 and affords no instance to inductive philosophy. The beasts 

 on which the * men ' of the present writer's time used to 

 disport themselves so gaily and frequently with the Heythrop, 

 the Bicester, the Old Berkshire, or Lord Macclesfield's hounds, 

 were often wondrous to look upon, and unlike most recognised 

 specimens of horseflesh. To be sure, they could all of them 

 jump, and some of them gallop ; but it is doubtful whether any 

 but an undergraduate would have trusted himself to their 

 conveyance. The wind, however, is always tempered to the 

 lamb ; and elsewhere, no doubt, the horse may be hired and 

 ridden with no, or few, misgivings. They may be hired for the 

 season, the month, or even the day, and as the owner generally 

 runs all risks of accidents, and relieves the hirer of all trouble, 

 it is clear that this is at least an irresponsible way of hunting. 

 Perhaps for a sportsman of limited means, who can allow him- 

 self but a day now and again, it is the one that presents least 

 hindrance of any. If he be moderately young, of moderately 

 light weight, and of moderate confidence, he might certainly 

 do worse than trust himself to some stable keepers of good 

 repute. The charges vary, of course, with the reputation of the 

 stable, the country, and the hounds. For a couple of guineas, 

 however, a decent nag may generally be secured for a day's 

 gallop in most counties. In the Oxford days, of which we have 

 spoken, the charge for the term was four guineas a week. For 



