HUNTING FROM LONDON. 285 



economy ; and you ought to have (why on earth don't you ?) 

 good leathers, decent boots, coat and hat, ivherei'er you hunt.' 

 All this is, no doubt, very true ; but it does not really touch on 

 what seems to us the gist of the argument. A man who could 

 afford to keep at one of the great hunting centres a stud suffi- 

 cient to enable him really to enjoy their advantages, would 

 hardly, we submit, find himself bound by necessity to reside 

 for the greater part of the week in London. Were he so 

 bound, it would surely be an idle waste both of money, time, 

 and ' tissue,' to incur the expense and the labour of keeping 

 his horses at such favoured spots for with all due respect to 

 ' Brooksby,' it is more expensive to hunt from Melton than from 

 Brentwood say, or Windsor and suffering the long journeys to 

 and fro, for the chance of a gallop once or twice a week. A 

 man whose work keeps him mainly in London, and yet has the 

 means to afford a few hunters in the country, is probably no 

 longer a young man ; and we repeat, the inevitable railway 

 journeys must sooner or later tell on the human frame which 

 has no longer the capital of youth to draw on, and in all pro- 

 bability sooner rather than later. There are exceptions, of 

 course, to every rule. There are men who, for some particular 

 cause, may find themselves obliged for a season, or part of a 

 season, to keep touch of London. They, of course, will take 

 their pleasure as best pleases them, and as they can best afford. 

 But for the average of men who 'hunt from town' we should 

 certainly recommend a moderate ambition. Indeed, if he elect 

 to keep his horses in London he will find himself obliged to 

 be so content, unless he be prepared for his stables to need 

 renewing as fast as Russian 'arrangements.' And we should also 

 recommend him, if he keep his horses in the country, always 

 when possible to go down to his quarters over-night. The 

 additional expense of a bedroom will not be excessive ; he 

 can always, save in very exceptional circumstances (and in such 

 it would perhaps be best to put the hunting by for a time), get 

 his day's work over in time for an evening train ; he will find 

 his own comfort greatly increased; and he will last much longer. 



