ON THE NATIONAL UTILITY OF HUNTING. 27 



"When Mr. Coper asks you three hundred and takes ' two fifty,' 

 as he. calls it, alleging the scarcity of horses, the excellence of 

 this particular specimen, and his own unbounded liberality, 

 intense respect for yourself, and every other inducement that 

 can mitigate the painful process of affixing your name to a cheque, 

 you seem to give him your money without exactly knowing 

 why ; but when the new purchase stops with you in deep ground 

 the first good scenting day, after you have hustled him along 

 honestly for two and twenty minutes, you think you do know why 

 exactly, and although you may be, and probably are, disgusted, 

 you cannot conscientiously admit that you are surprised." 



This was written some years ago, as all those who remember 

 the much-talked-of Horse versus Hound match (which, by the 

 way, fell through) must know. True as was the picture then, 

 we have since gone from bad to worse, and, as hunting men 

 know to their sorrow, even such moderate animals as are therein 

 so ably sketched have not only risen in price, but have been 

 much harder to obtain at any price. 



It is clear that we can no longer look to the race-course as 

 the fountain head from which useful horses are to be derived ; 

 and if our once boasted superiority in this respect is not to be 

 totally annihilated, we must turn to the chase to stimulate their 

 production. Thanks to a few noblemen and gentlemen who have 

 bred blood horses, not with the view of racing, but as hunters, 

 there is a little material left in the country to work on ; and we 

 see, every now and then, a good sound wear- and- tear, short- 

 legged race-horse who strains back for a few generations to sound 

 enduring blood amongst those brought out — such a horse as John 

 Davis, for instance, but they become scarcer, alas ! year after year. 

 If more hunting men like the Duke of Beaufort, Mr. Henry 

 Chaplin, Mr. Fenwick Eisset, and a few others, would secure 

 such horses when they were to be found, and place them at the 

 service of their tenants, one move, at any rate, would be made 

 in the right direction. It is not for me, in such a work as the 

 present, to write a disquisition as to how the deficiency is to be 



