THE LIFE OF A SPORTSMAN 47 



race-horse who has never been entirely thrown out of 

 condition since he was first saddled. These are the causes 

 of such distress and apparent cruelty to the horse that 

 follows foxhounds, and account for the few that, by means 

 of great accidental superiority in the animal, are alone abl-e 

 to see a fast and long run throughout. Thus, also, the 

 following paragraph, which I saw the other day in print, 

 is accounted for : ' Mr. Meynell's hounds have had great 

 sport this season. Two extraordinary runs happened, 

 of a very rare nature. One was an hour and twenty 

 minutes, without a check, in which they killed their fox. 

 The other, two hours and fifty minutes, without a cast, 

 and killed. The hounds, in the first run, kept well 

 together, and only two horses performed it ; the rest of the 

 field were unequal to its fleetness. The other run alluded 

 to, was performed by the whole of the pack ; and though 

 all the hounds were up at the death, two or three slackened 

 in their pace just at the last. Only one horse went the whole 

 of it. 1 x But we shall live to see these evils remedied. 

 Some person or another, who has witnessed their extent, and 

 reflected upon the causes, will, one of these days, expose 

 them. "We shall then hear less of tired horses, and very 

 little of those killed with hounds, and of runs in which 

 only one gets to the end, as in the extract I have just 

 quoted. Common sense, indeed, must at once direct us, 

 if we but give it a chance to do so. If hounds are every 

 year better bred, and go faster, the breed of our hunters 

 must also be higher and more pure. As the condition of 

 the former improves, so must that of the latter ; and I 

 have one consolation left me from the unfortunate occur- 

 rence which has called forth these remarks. I have made 

 up my mind, in future, to give my horses every chance in 

 their favour that it is in my power to afford them. I have 

 determined never to purchase a horse not quite, or nearly, 

 thorough-bred, so long as I hunt in Leicestershire ; nor 

 will I ever throw a hunter quite out of condition again. 

 ' Let them down a little in the summer,' are my orders to 

 my groom ; ' but lose not what has caused you so much 



1 See " The Meynelliau System ; by the late John Ha wkes. Esq.," 

 p. 21. It is more than probable that one of the three horses thus 

 distinguished was ridden by Mr. Hawkes himself, one of the finest 

 horsemen of his day, both over a country and over a course. Many 

 of my readers will remember The Printer, and Featherlegs ; and 

 that Mr. H. always rode horses of pure blood. 



