34 A HUNTING STABLE. 



Stalls with as fine a collection of hunters as can ordi- 

 narily be seen within the four walls of a single gentle- 

 man's stable. Out of the thirty horses which it con- 

 tained all but nine were perfectly thorough-bred, and 

 the remainder having all at the least three or four 

 crosses of pure blood, coupled to such bone and beauty, 

 could scarcely fail to carry a heavy man well up to 

 the hounds. 



Several of the thorough-breds were animals of the 

 rarest symmetry — that one especially, of which Ro- 

 berts had spoken, as a silver-gray by Orville out of a 

 Whalebone mare, and which was alone brought out of 

 his stall and stripped of his body clothes for the in- 

 spection of the gentlemen. 



He was a trifle over sixteen hands in height, of a 

 rich silvery-gray, with a jet-black mane and tail, and 

 legs from the houghs downward ; but in his points and 

 figure it was immediately conceded, even by those crit- 

 ical and most fastidious judges, that he was nothing 

 below perfection. 



" Upon my soul," drawled Cheshire in his lazy affec- 

 ted manner, " he is the biggest and stoutest thorough- 

 bred I ever saw. Well up to fourteen stone, I am 

 Bure." 



"Well up to sixteen, Ches," returned the duke, 

 " and so clean that there is no mistake about his 

 breeding. The finest arm and best let-down quarters 

 I have looked at these six years — and see how finely 

 his withers taper down, what a short back and what a 

 length below. If his action matches his shape he is 

 worth more than a trifle." 



" His action on the road is equal to any thing, your 

 grace," replied the stud-groom, speaking for his mas- 

 ter. " We havn't had a chance to give him much of 

 a trial beyond a gallop or two and his sweats over the 

 green, but I'll answer for him he can go. He's got a 

 mouth like a feather, but he'll take a pull, too, from 



