HUNTING. 109 



me to sacrifice ; and many a good man and 

 true have I seen recover himself by a like 

 action, when a hog-maned animal would 

 undoubtedly have brought him to grief. 

 Grooms are especially fond of this system of 

 ^^ hogging," and many a beauteous adjunct 

 of Nature's forming has been ruthlessly 

 sacrificed to their ceaseless importunities to 

 be permitted to ** smarten the baste." Tails, 

 too, are remorselessly docked by these gentle- 

 men of the stable ; not that they really think 

 it an improvement, any more than they 

 veritably admire the hogging process, but it 

 saves them trouble, it lightens their labours, 

 they have less combing and grooming to 

 attend to. Tails were sent by Nature, not 

 merely as an ornament, but to enable the 

 animal to whisk away the flies, which in hot 

 weather render its life a burthen. Man, the 

 ruthless master, by a cruel process of cutting 

 and searing, deprives his helpless slave of 

 one of its most valued and most necessary 

 possessions. I do not myself advocate long 

 switch tails, which are rarely an ornament, 

 being usually covered with mud ; but I 



