THE GROOM 127 



we fear, try to resist them. The easiness of comfort is soon 

 acquired, and the chance of adverse circumstances is un- 

 pleasant to contemplate. 



In hiring a Groom, or indeed a servant of any sort, it is 

 always advisable to get them from places rather under than 

 above those they are coming to. A retrograding servant is 

 generally a dissatisfied servant, and as they always ride in the 

 highest hole in the stirrup of their knowledge, they are very 

 apt to think it necessary to instruct the new master in the 

 style and doings of their best place ; instead of serving, they 

 assume the direction. In the country, the scale of servitude 

 is as nicely understood, and the position of families as 

 accurately settled by servants, as the hereditary nobility is 

 by Mr. Burke or the Heralds' College. Grooms from great 

 places are often full of whims and conceit, and think nothing 

 can be right but what was done at Sir John's or my lord's. 

 Masters are great fools to submit to anything of the sort. 

 No two books, let alone two masters, agree upon even the 

 most ordinary point of stable management. Take feeding, 

 for instance — one man will tell you that hay should be given 

 in about the quantity of 12 lb. a day; but if you go into a 

 barrack yard, and ask a soldier what his horse gets, he will 

 tell you 8 lb. is the allowance. The more ignorant a Groom 

 is, the more mysterious, conceited, and pedantic he is, the 

 more he talks about his infallible receipts and nostrums, 

 known to none but himself, or confided by some equally great 

 authority. These sort of pretenders are only for young men, 

 the old stager knows the simplicity of condition too well to 

 be talked to in that strain. One of the absurdities of the 

 times is making everything as complicated and mysterious as 

 possible, using hard words where hard words can be brought 

 in, and dividing and subdividing trades, professions, and 

 occupations. The first thing a lad does now-a-days is to set 

 up a watch, after which, if his mind incline towards horses, he 



