THE GROOM 113 



shaken off, and half the horses sent home sad and tired. 

 These half-and-half hunts had an advantage not apparent at 

 first sight, which bears upon the heading of our paper. By 

 running hare till Christmas, sportsmen got their soft horses 

 into condition for the lengthened and more fatiguing fox- 

 chases that took place after. 



The condition of hunters was certainly not generally under- 

 stood, or perhaps attended to, until about twenty years ago, 

 when " Nimrod " essayed his letters on the subject. We do 

 not mean to say that large first-rate establishments were 

 ignorant of the subject ; but certainly tired, stopping, and 

 dying horses were much more common before he wrote than 

 they have been since. Indeed, we seldom hear of a horse 

 being killed by sheer riding, unless in the hands of some raw, 

 enterprising beginner, who has omitted no opportunity of 

 taking a gallop whenever he could get one, needful or other- 

 wise — a gallop being a gallop with some, and quite as enjoyable 

 without hounds as with. 



Mr. Beckford, in his " Thoughts upon Hunting," glanced at 

 what "Nimrod" afterwards wrote into a system, namely, 

 losing all the condition gained by the work and the feeding 

 of winter, by turning the horses out to grass in the spring. 

 Mr. Beckford, we imagine, had been of the grazing order ; 

 indeed, for any but a few countries, there is no doubt but the 

 old-fashioned system, with proper management, will always 

 produce condition enough for all legitimate riding to hounds. 

 The heat and flies of summer used to be the great argument 

 against turning out ; but, as summers go, it is very seldom we 

 have much to complain of in that w-ay. Doubtless the house 

 system is the surest and the safest way to hard condition, but 

 it is much more expensive than the other, though of course its 

 advocates always swear it is not. A man's hobby never costs 

 anything. 



" Nimrod's " letters on condition did a great deal of good, 



I 



