HORSES AND HOUNDS. 217 



mean only), I will give them tlie next best advice I can — how 

 to get well out of it. 



Now, then, to the purpose. Let him who is about to com- 

 mence the arduous enterprise of managing a subscription pack 

 of fox-hounds, sit quietly down first and make a cool calculation 

 upon paper of what his expenses are likely to be, and put every- 

 thing down at the outside figure. It is like making an estimate 

 for building a house ; the extras will amount to at least a third 

 of the specified sum. According to the country, and the num- 

 ber of days he has to hunt per week, must his establishment of 

 horses and hounds be. For himself or his huntsman he must 

 begin with three good made hunters. A huntsman should be 

 well mounted upon good and steady horses, for he will have 

 quite enough to do in looking after his hounds to mind much 

 what his horse is about. I am speaking now economically ; how 

 things may be done respectably, yet efiiciently, and without any 

 profuse expenditure. A good judge of horses may pick up good 

 and serviceable animals at the end of the season, suitable for 

 any provincial country, for sixty guineas each, or less money, if 

 he has his wits about him. As we cannot ailord a second horse 

 in the field, we must buy such only as have good legs and feet, 

 powerful frames to stand wear and tear, and small heads, well- 

 bred ones also. For the whippers-in purchase young horses of 

 four or five years old. They are better than old screws or 

 twenty-five pounders, inasmuch as they will improve in value 

 as the others decrease. 



The cub-hunting season is a capital opportunity for breaking 

 in young horses. If bad tempers, take care your men are not 

 bad tempers also, or they will make bad work of it. I have had 

 and ridden as bad-tempered horses as any man ever possessed, 

 but by quiet usage they became to me valuable hunters, and 

 their dispositions were decidedly altered. In my hard riding 

 days I never used spur or whip. All was done by the voice 

 alone. The country I rode over was as severe as ever was 

 crossed — double ditches, with stiff hedges and high banks. At 

 these I always pulled up a little before reaching them, to allow 

 my horse the opportunity of taking them in his own way. At 

 brooks I went faster, but at gates and walls the rein was always 

 pulled, as at heavy fences. By this plan my falls in a season 

 were very few, nor was my horse blown. A deer, which can 

 jump higher than any other animal, although going ever so fast, 

 will generally slacken his pace before taking a high fence, and 

 approaches it in a trot. This should be a lesson to hard riders. 

 I have seen some few in my time, and rattling falls they would 

 get, when, by going so fast at their fences, the wind was pumped 



