60 OBSERVATIONS ON FOX-HUNTING 



great utility, it is a lounge three times a week, 

 where you are sure to meet your friends, and 

 can listen with pleasure to their reports of the 

 achievements of the different packs of hounds 

 the season past, and the arrangements for the 

 future. 



Suppose you purchase half a dozen young 

 horses, at a hundred guineas each, to carry four- 

 teen stone ; if two out of the six turn out well, 

 you ovight to be satisfied, as there is every proba- 

 bility of your selling the remaining four for fifty 

 each, barring accidents. Many fox-hunters prefer 

 thorough-bred horses, others cock-tails ; I always 

 gave the preference to the former, if it was pos- 

 sible to get them. It is the general opinion, 

 that thorough-bred horses cannot leap so well 

 as " cock-tails : " I think otherwise ; and if you 

 will try the experiment, by taking ten young 

 horses of the former, and ten of the latter sort, 

 I am convinced you will find the thorough-bred 

 ones to have the advantage, and naturally to 

 clear their fences with more ease to themselves. 

 Horses that have been in training for years can- 

 not be expected to make hunters ; but, never- 

 theless, what superiority a thorough-bred one has 

 in every respect, — above all, in speed, bottom, 

 and wind ? It often happens, when a cock-tail 

 is at the height of his speed, a thorough-bred 



