HUNTING FROM LONDON. 281 



that the despairing sportsman may well cry to us in the words 

 of Rasselas to Imlac, ' Enough, you have convinced me that 

 no human being can ever keep hunters in London.' That we 

 do not say. But it is a difficult business ; one with many 

 hindrances and limitations. And it is at least well that he who 

 proposes to undertake it should do so with his eyes open. A 

 season of practice will show him these difficulties far more 

 clearly than we can, and probably introduce him to many other 

 lesser ones which we have not considered. But though ex- 

 perience is certainly the best of all schoolmasters, the fees, as 

 some sage has wisely said, are apt to be heavy. 



No particular difficulty seems at first sight to lie in the way of 

 the other plan. To select your head-quarters, place your hunters 

 in a good stable, and have yourself conveyed down to them by 

 train on hunting days, seems a simple plan enough. And so it 

 is, provided the stable be under the care of a groom whom you 

 have proved worthy of your confidence. But that is the rub. 



If you place your horses at livery, where they will be among 

 many others requiring equal care and attention, it is clear you 

 must trust largely to the honesty and good faith of the stable 

 keeper. Probably you will pay about thirty shillings a week ' 

 for each horse, exclusive of 'extras,' which are apt to have 

 limits of astounding elasticity. The prices of forage vary, of 

 course, but at any season if the best kinds are used it is obvious 

 that the margin of profit out of thirty shillings will not be 

 large, and the temptation to supply something not quite so 

 good as the best, will be. Of course a man who has to cater 

 for a large number of horses will be able to get his forage 

 cheaper than he who has to buy it in smaller quantities. Whole- 

 sale, as we all know, is cheaper than retail. But ' margins ' there 

 must be ; if they will not come by nature, they must be 

 forced by art. Then there is the grooming. The staff of 

 a livery-stable keeper is a hard-worked body of men. Two 

 hunters are quite as much as one groom can do justice 



1 Twenty-six shillings a week was charged at the Hunt Hotel, Leighton 

 Buzzard, during the season '84-85. EDITOR. 



