372 BANYAN DAYS. 



lowed himself astonished that they could carry his 

 weight better, faster, and longer than his own. I 

 was not ; they had wind for me, and a puff or two 

 left for even his four-stone extra weight. The pre- 

 sence of weight tells awfully no doubt, but the ab- 

 sence of wind is a regular stopper. 



Without arrogating to myself tlie province of 



adviser to any one, I may, perhaps, be permitted to 



state where I think some people act injudiciously in 



reo-ard to the treatment of hunters on and about 



hunting days, so far as regards fasting them, it is 



quite true that we want the hunter in as good wind 



as the racer, and neither are fit for their purpose 



with anything bordering on a full stomach : there is 



this difference, however, between what we require 



of the two horses. The race-horse is only called on 



for exertion on an average of, perhaps, four or five 



minutes, but the hunter has as many hours' work 



before him, and must have something in him to 



support that exertion, and ftxsting horses as long as 



some grooms do is not likely to afford this support. 



A bucket of water and a rack of liay are not quite 



wdiat we would wish to give a horse on a hunting 



morning. Nor would a pot of porter and a large 



beef- steak be just the sort of breakfast for a man 



intendino- to run four miles. But if the man had a 



walk of two hours and a half to go before running, 



and his run was not to commence before eleven 



o' clock, a moderate breakfast of a chop and a bit of 



stale bread, or a couple of biscuits at six, would not 



make him run a bit the worse, on the contrary, the 



better for it. If lie had only one hundred yards to 



go this support would not be necessary. Vv'ith dogs 



the case is different : their digestion is slower, they 



