70 THE HUNTING-FIELD. 



why so it must be. Of tlie propriety of all this, 

 or its reverse, I leave those competent to the task 

 to give their opinions ; I only speak of facts as I 

 see them. 



Stating, or rather giving, an opinion, as I have 

 done, that strong and constant exercise is abso- 

 lutely essential to keep the hunter in that state 

 of condition requisite to perform the work wanted 

 in our present style of hunting, I might be asked, 

 whether I mean he should undergo the discipline 

 of the race horse ? To this I could only give a 

 qualified reply, namely, '^ At particular times he 

 must undergo work very closely bordering on it," 

 and principally for the following reasons : — 



It was held by our ancestors of, we will say, 

 the last century, that it was not expected that 

 hunters, or indeed hounds, could be in really 

 good wind and condition in the early part of the 

 season ; it was further a frequent remark of those 

 days that " just as horses, hounds, and even 

 foxes, were in a state to show the best sport, 

 hunting ceased," and doubtless the remark was a 

 perfectly correct one : and we will now look to 

 the causes that made it so. 



In the first place, the reason why horses could 

 not possibly be in hunting condition early in the 

 season, arose from their being, during the summer, 

 totally thrown out of it, the lower-bred, phlegmatic, 

 thick-skinned ones came up loaded with soft flesh. 



