NE SUTOR ULTRA CREPIDAM. 371 



mountino' a friend, a dozen or fifteen hunters are to 

 be made use of. 



A friend of mine — a capital sportsman, but, in 

 Leicestershire phrase, a snob — some years since had 

 a mind to see Melton, and sent down five excellent 

 hunters and two hacks, who could, on occasion, " go 

 a bit" with hounds. He considered he could hunt 

 every day in the week with these — so he had done, 

 and could continue to do in Gloucestershire: but, in 

 little more than two months, in Leicestershire, he 

 brought them back all skeletons, four of them 

 screwed up for that season, and his best horse with 

 inflammation on the lungs, from which he never re- 

 covered. The fact was, my friend rode heavy, and 

 as bold as ever man rode ; his horses were in good 

 condition on going to Melton, that is, good general 

 fox-hunting condition, but not in racing condition, 

 and in this state they had to go with horses that 

 were. They did for a time, because they were very 

 superior nags, but the conseqnence was what I have 

 stated, — each horse was required to come so often that 

 he was forced to be all but rested from one hunting 

 day to the next. After a horse has been indidged 

 we will say three days, it requires four or five of 

 proper exercise and work to screw him up again to 

 proper concert pitch; this these horses had not: they 

 were not properly wound up, so, like a watch in the 

 same situation, could not go. 



On my friend's return after his disastrous Melton 

 campaign, his horses were, of course, unfit for service. 

 I had long borne his gibes and jeers on my " leather- 

 flapping" system, as he used to call the way I treated 

 my horses, but he now most gratefully accepted an 

 occasional mount on the " leather-flappers." He al- 



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