SUMMERING THE HUNTER. 17o 



stares us in the face. If the horse cannot get away 

 from this host of tormenters, his only remedy against 

 them is, galloping from one end of his pasture to 

 the other, or else stamping with his feet against the 

 hard ground, and often against the roots of trees, to 

 scare them from one part of his body only to settle 

 upon another. The injury to both feet and legs, from 

 a daily succession of these operations, may be left 

 to the imagination of the reader ; but against the 

 charge of cruelty, we quote the following remark 

 from Nimrod''s Letters: — " In the very hot weather,'' 

 (he is speaking of the summer of 1825, which was 

 remarkable for the intenseness of its heat,) " I 

 made a few observations, which are not irrelevant 

 to my present purpose, particularly as to the charge 

 of cruelty in keeping hunters in the house, in the 

 summer. On the 29th of July, one of the hottest 

 days, the thermometer was one degree higher, at 

 two o'clock at noon, in my two four-stall stables, in 

 each of which three horses had stood for sixteen 

 days and nights, than it was in the entrance-hall 

 of my house, which is twenty-three feet high, and 

 contains three large windows and six doors, and the 

 aspect due east. Now, will any one tell me, that 

 the most tender animal could be injured by breath- 

 ing such an atmosphere as this ? But all is not 

 yet told. I removed the thermometer on the same 

 day, and about the same hour, into the shade, and 

 there itwas/oz^r degrees higher than in m?/ two four- 

 stall stables. Here, then, the objection to horses 

 standing ' sweating in the stables in the summer 

 time,' returns to its real insignificance." 



