112 THE HACKNEY. 



arises, What is a good hack? It cannot be an- 

 swered but with reference to another question, 

 namely, What description of person is he to carry ? 

 The horse that a sober citizen of London or Edin- 

 burgh would call a perfect hackney to carry him to 

 his country seat, would not be worth five shillings 

 to a Newmarket or a country jockey, or as a cover 

 hack to a Leicestershire or Warwickshire sports- 

 man. We will commence, then, with the cover 

 hack, and describe the others in their turns. 



The Cover Hack of the present day is very dif- 

 ficult to be procured, because he must unite, with 

 the good qualities of the roadster, the requisites 

 and accomplishments of the hunter. In fact, he 

 must be a hunter in miniature ; and, after all, the 

 form of the hunter is the best calculated for a road- 

 ster. He must be fast in all his paces, able to 

 gallop well on deep or soft ground, and equal to 

 carrying his rider over moderately-sized fences ; 

 and if taught to leap timber standing, his value is 

 proportionally increased. But, above all things, 

 he must go from twelve to fifteen miles in the 

 hour, when wanted, without showing any symp- 

 toms of distress ; and he is too often unnecessarily 

 called upon to perform much more than this, by 

 his owner delaying the period of his leaving home 

 in the morning, for the purpose of meeting hounds. 

 It may also be observed, that it is not every sports- 

 man who keeps two cover hacks, although he may 

 keep six or eight hunters ; and it often happens 

 that the cover hack does more work than any 



