120 THE HUNTINC; FIELD 



masters and all other servants is so slight, and occurs at such 

 stated and expected periods, that it would be odd if they could 

 not raise sufficient manners to pass muster; but Grooms — stable- 

 servants in general — have the " eyes of England " upon them, 

 as " hard-up " orators say. Not onl}' is the private eye of 

 England (the masters) upon them, but the real public eye of 

 the world at large. 



Every Groom who enters the hunting field — every Groom, 

 as he passes along the street — rides as it were upon his 

 character. His horse and himself show what he is. 



There are two things we make it a rule never to keep, a 

 drunken servant and an oil lamp ; and we go upon much the 

 same principle in both cases, namely, that the servant is sure 

 to be drunk, and the oil lamp to go out, when we want them. 

 Drunkenness is an inexcusable vice in any servant — least of 

 all in a servant entrusted with horses ; yet how many fat, 

 comfortable-looking old ladies we see getting into their carriages 

 in the country, to be whisked home by fellows who have been 

 boozing in the tap-room all day, and whose fine cutting and 

 tearing earns them the reputation of "excellent coachmen." 

 Women think of nothing but going fast. If they are fast driven 

 they think they are well driven. That, however, appertains 

 more to the branch " Jehu "' than the peculiar class of servants 

 under consideration. 



" Honesty, sobriety, and civility " are the cardinal qualities 

 inquired after in character ; but there is another very important 

 one, especially in a Hunting Groom, " punctuality," that 

 should never be lost sight of. Want of punctuality counter- 

 balances almost everj' good quality. Half an hour — nay, five 

 minutes — is sometimes everything in a hunting morning. 

 Fancy a man coming twenty miles to meet hounds, and his 

 horse arriving five minutes after the last craner has taken the 

 distant fence, the panting hack sobbing as the master sits 

 straining his eye-balls — now after the hounds, now in vain 



