PRESENT PRACTICE IN BREEDING. 7J 



hunting field, that they have been chiefly left in 

 the hands of farmers and yeomen, who are become 

 the principal breeders of English hunters. Neither 

 do hunters find their road direct from the breeder 

 to the studs of noblemen or gentlemen. They 

 generally go through the hands of an inferior 

 country dealer, from whom they are bought by the 

 principal London and country dealers, and sold by 

 them to the sportsmen of the various hunts. There 

 are, of course, exceptions to this proceeding. A 

 great proportion of English yeomen and farmers 

 are very excellent horsemen, and, as such, having 

 the capability of making their young horses into 

 hunters, and, distinguishing them by riding them 

 afterwards with hounds, obtain now and then as 

 high a price for them as they fetch after having 

 passed through the hands we have described. It 

 is, however, to be lamented that the last-mentioned 

 description of persons, the breeders and trainers of 

 young hunters, do not, for the most part, realize 

 such large prices as the first, although fully entitled 

 to it, as a reward for their trouble and skill. 



It is impossible to lay down any precise rules 

 for breeding hunters, so many collateral circum- 

 stances being necessary to be taken into considera- 

 tion. For example. Pennant, in his Zoology, says, 

 " Our race-horses are descended from Arabian 

 stallions, and the genealogy faintly extends to the 

 hunter.'' From this we learn the interesting fact, 

 that a wonderful change, within the last sixty or 

 seventy years, has taken place in the form and 

 character of this sort of horse, inasmuch as, in the 



