61^ THE HUxVTING-FIELD. 



pose. But, iiow-a-daj^s, if we were to tlirow an 

 old liorse totally out of the practice of fast work, 

 and, still worse, out of hard keep, not one in twenty 

 could ever be screwed up again (not to concert) 

 but to hunting pitch : fortunate the owner, if he 

 did not come up a roarer or broken- winded. 



I will instance the veteran Mountjoy, the 

 pedestrian: he can still perform extraordinary 

 feats. Force him to lead a perfectly sedentary 

 life for twelve months; he might by training aud 

 practice again walk well as an ordinary man, but 

 the chances would be very great against his ever 

 again being Mountjoy as he now is. Constant 

 going still enables him to go, and so it does old 

 horses. 



Young horses, on the contrary, require a con- 

 siderable length of comparative rest to recover 

 from unusual exertion. They have not been long 

 enouirh accustomed to it for habit to have fami- 

 liarised its effects either to their limbs, muscles, or 

 constitution, all of which suffer considerable tem- 

 porary prostration by it, however little youthful 

 spirits may make them show it. The old horse 

 is so accustomed to exertion, that in him its chief 

 effect is creating stiffness, which proper exercise 

 carries off. 



I do not attempt to account for it, while I 

 state that it was rarely found that very young 

 men could stand driving night coaches; we 



