THE HORSE. 249 



of summer stabling have got up deep and alarming 

 tragedies of raw head and bloody bone accidents, 

 probable to occur in the pastures. No doubt acci- 

 dents may occur there as elsewhere, nor can any 

 system of absolute safety and perfection be disco- 

 vered ; but, with respect to myself, I have been so 

 fortunate as to escape such accidents, nor do I hear 

 of much lamentation on that score, saving and ex- 

 cepting from the gentlemen alarmists above men- 

 tioned. To close the dissection of this limb of the 

 subject with the intelligence I obtained last year — 

 inquiring in several counties, who summered their 

 hunters in the stable? I got quizzed and joked. I 

 could not hear of a single hunt wherein it was prac- 

 tised. It was observed to me that, in the opinion of 

 my informants, the persons who kept their hunters in 

 the stable, were those who had occasion to ride them 

 hackney in the summer season ; and my informants, 

 moreover, thought it would be derogatory from the 

 high degree of liberality and feeling which distin- 

 guished the true British sportsman, to treat the noble 

 and generous horse, the minister and companion of 

 one of their highest gratifications, with such coldness 

 and neglect. The considerable saving of expense, by 

 summering hunters abroad, forms no item, in course, 

 with the liberal sportsman, his motive is superior. 



But every proposition, or question, is bi-lateral, of 

 necessity having two sides, and it is scarcely a sup- 

 posable thing that I can be either ignorant or un- 

 mindful of the accidents which may happen to a 

 hunter at summer grass. In the first place, the 

 quality of the pasture is to be considered in any sea- 



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