248 THE LIFE OF A SPORTSMAN 



the five years that he has tried it in his large stud. In 

 the first place, never a summer, he said, passed over 

 before, that some accident, or indeed accidents, did not 

 happen which occasioned him to buy more horses ; and, 

 in the next, he said that, if one of the stud only were to 

 be sold at Tattersall's at the commencement of the follow- 

 ing season he would fetch as much extra price, by his 

 superior condition and appearance, as would repay the 

 expenses of summering the whole lot on this plan. In 

 fact, the groom told me he had seen my lord's own 

 calculation, which showed that, had he to pay for his 

 twelve hunters at grass for three months in the summer, 

 the difference between the charge for it, and the expenses 

 of keeping them after this fashion, would not be more 

 than twenty-five or thirty pounds at furthest." 



" Depend upon it, my lord is right ! " exclaimed Dick. 



" "Well, I think so, too," observed the Scotchman. 



" 1 am quite sure of it" said the groom ; " and I am 

 also sure that no gentleman's horses in any hunt we may 

 go into next season, unless it is Lord Sandford's, and a 

 few others, belonging to some of his friends who have 

 acted on his plan, will look as ours will look ; and I have 

 reason to believe we shall be able to do with one helper 

 less in the stables." 



" That will be no trifle," said the steward, and here the 

 conversation dropped. 



When the next season commenced, the appearance and 

 condition of the horses fully answered the expectations of 

 our young sportsman and his groom the latter, indeed, 

 feeling proud of them, and, of course, claiming the merit 

 to himself ; and after a fortnight's hare-hunting with his 

 father, Frank Raby and his stud made their appearance 

 in Warwickshire. But why select Warwickshire, when 

 other and more fashionable countries were at his option 

 Leicestershire, Northamptonshire, &c. ? The answer is 

 comprised in a few words. Neither his purse nor his 

 stud was then equal to Leicestershire, in the first place ; 

 and in the next, he was strongly recommended to 

 Warwickshire, on account of the gentleman who then 

 hunted it, and the harmony and good fellowship that was 

 said to distinguish the society of that long-established 

 Hunt, and of the neighbourhood generally in which the 

 headquarters of the Hunt were established. And who 

 was the gentleman who then hunted Warwickshire, and 



