THE ATHERSTONE 249 



to ;^ioo after a season's hunting. I am not, I regret to 

 admit, an advocate of horse-breeding as a help to the 

 farmer of moderate means in England. It is too risky, 

 too lengthy, and too expensive a process for him to indulge 

 in, while every energy is being strained to make both ends 

 of his main occupation duly meet. He will assuredly 

 develop either into one more exponent of the old adage 

 (there is some truth in most old adages), " Two brood 

 mares will ruin a farmer," or into the semi-professional 

 horse-dealing farmer, a role sometimes successful and ad- 

 mirable, sometimes not. The ordinary young farmer, by 

 nature and practice a horseman, may still get his hunting, 

 if not profitably at least inexpensively, by buying a good 

 colt of rough class, teaching him, and selling him at a fair 

 profit to dealer or gentleman (the definition their own) as 

 soon as he can ; while in riding a scrambling pony he is 

 merely helping to use up his capital. 



Of my Atherstone experiences I have only to add that 

 I saw Wilson hunting hounds with science and readiness on 

 Friday, and with cheery quickness on Saturday — the latter 

 characteristic no mean attribute amid heavy woodland. 



I ought to append some names wherewith to decorate 

 my meagre sketch of Atherstone ground ; but when I have 

 noted those of Mr. and Mrs. Oakeley (the former to all 

 appearance enjoying his hunting quite as thoroughly as 

 when he held the reins, before handing them over to Mr. 

 Inge), their son and Miss Oakeley, Messrs. E. Pierrepoint, 

 H. Townshend, and Ralli, my memory fails me, and I 

 must finish the paragraph with &c. For most of the 

 others seemed to me to be those who, like m^^self, haunt 

 a district rather than cling to a pack. 



I conclude with a note previously penned, and by no 

 means begotten of any particular day or pack. Spring 

 hunting is, of course, occasion for a Master's determining 

 which hounds he shall draft. There is probably (for this, 

 I understand from every side, is an exceptionally good and 

 healthy year for young hounds coming in) no lack, rather 

 an embarrassment, of new material. Get rid of the old 

 favourites, except if, and only if, they drive right at the 

 head. Your " reliable old line hunters " are villainous 



