420 
BREEDING OF HUNTERS AND HACKS. 
business to see tliat tlie district is never witliout the com¬ 
mand of a good, sound, thorough-bred stallion, calculated 
to get hunters and hacks.^^ Let such a horse, if necessary, 
be even the property of the hunt, to stand at the kennel 
stables; and let him, moreover, serve farmers^ mares at a 
certain moderate figure. ' Never, however, under any cir¬ 
cumstances, let his favours be given gratis; for people are 
very apt to estimate that which they get for nothing at what 
they pay for it, and such a practice would only tend to make 
men more careless over a matter which they are only too 
indifferent about as it is. The principle I would here re¬ 
commend has already been tried. It was only within the 
last year or two that I Avas staying wdth a friend on the 
borders of Shropshire, who Avas then looking out for another 
such stud-horse for the country, as they had just lost the one 
they had been using for some seasons. Baron Rothschild, 
Avho hunts the vale of Aylesbury so handsomely, takes especial 
care that a thorough-bred one is ever Avithin the graziers’ 
reach at Mentmore; and the Duke of Beaufort has noAV 
ahvays a stallion Avhich serA^es mares within the boundaries 
of the Badminton, at a trifle over a merely nominal figure. 
I had the honour last autumn of aAvarding his grace’s 
premiums for the best yearlings by his Kingstown, as Avell 
as for the best mare Avith a foal at her foot by the same 
horse, Avhen the following suggestive incident occurred. 
The prize for the yearling went to a really bloodlike filly, 
Avitli fine free action to back her appearance. In the course 
of the morning I was accosted by her OAvner, a perfect 
stranger, Avho after a Avord for the young one, added, “ But 
you would not give her mother a prize, sir.” I did not 
know that I had ever had the opportunity of doing so, until 
my new acquaintance explained to me that she Avas in the 
brood-mare class, acknowledging at the same time, “ I knoAv 
why she did not get it; she is not quite well-bred enough.” 
And he Avas right. She was not well-bred enough nor active 
enough to be either first or second of her order; and that 
Avonderful nick Avitli the thorough-bred horse had done it all 
—a fact Avhich even a possibly partial owner saw as plainly 
as I did. 
This brings me to another branch of my subject. Having 
secured the use of a good promising horse, let us as early as 
possible go on to prove him. The four-year-old hunting 
class is the faA^orite one at our agricultural meetings; but 
I am not quite sure but that the yearling and tAvo-year-old 
classes are not more advantageous in their eflects to the 
breeders. In the first place, if a man has a tolerably good- 
