56 THE HUNTING-FIELD. 



where a large stud is kept : for instance, there 

 are packs where nine horses are kept for the 

 huntsmen and whips ; there are others where from 

 fifteen to eighteen are kept for the same purpose. 

 And such a stud will exhibit, taking all the horses 

 together, a fair average of capability among them 

 as regards endurance of work. Among them, 

 probably, the generality will, barring illness and 

 accident, come regularly once a week. Some 

 may occasionally, from blank days, be able to 

 come twice ; while others, more delicate in consti- 

 tution, or from particularly severe runs, will not 

 be able to appear again under ten days, or in 

 some cases a fortnight : thus the whole, by (in 

 sporting phrase) ^' giving and taking," keep up 

 the average amount of work in a limited time. 



The case, however, becomes widely diflPerent 

 with a small number of horses ; and supposing my 

 reader to be one of many who only keep, we will 

 say, three hunters for their use : if he means with 

 these to hunt on an average three days a ^a eek, 

 he must be careful that his horses are of an 

 average sort, for should he happen to get hold of 

 tw^o delicate ones out of the three, he will find 

 that though eighteen horses will be quite certain 

 to carry three men six days a week, three are by 

 no means certain to carry one man three. If he 

 gets three fair constitutioned ones, he will do ; for 

 as the exertion called forth in a horse during a 



