• 86 THE HORSE. 



The clumsy-barrelled, cloddy-shouldered, round-legged, black, family 

 horse, neither a coach nor a dray-liorse, but something between both, as 

 fat as an ox, and, with all his pride and prancing at first starting, not 

 equal to more than six miles an hour, and knocking-up with one hard day's 

 work, is no more seen ; and we have, instead of" him, an animal of tall, 

 deep-chested, rising in the withers, slanting in the shoulders, flat in the 

 legs, with even more strength, and with treble the speed. 



Tliere is a great deal of deception, however, even in the best of these 

 improved coach-horses. They prance it nobly through the streets ; and 

 tliey have more work in them than the old clumsy, sluggish breed : but 

 they have not the endurance that could be wished, — and a pair of poor 

 post-horses would, at the end of the second day, beat them hollow. 



The knee-action, and high lifting of the feet in the carriage-horse is 

 deemed an excellence, because it adds to the grandeur of his appearance ; 

 but, as has already been stated, it is necessarily accompanied by much 

 wear and tear of the legs and feet, and this is very soon apparent. 



The principal points in the coach-horse are, substance well placed, a 

 deep and well prorportioned body, bone under the knee, and sound, open, 

 tough feet. 



The origin of the better kind of coach-horse is the Cleveland Bay, con- 

 fined principally to Yorkshire and Durham, with perhaps, Lincolnshire on 

 one side, and Northumberland on the other, but difficult to meet with pure 

 in either county. The Cleveland mare is crossed by a three-fourth, or 

 thorough-bred horse of sufficient substance and height, and the pi'oduce ia 

 the coach-horse most in repute, with his arched crest and high action. 

 From the thorough-bred of sufficient height, but not of so much substance, 

 we obtain the four-in-hand, and superior curricle-horse. 



From less height and more substance we have the hunter and better 

 sort of hackney ; and, from the half-bred, we derive the machineer, the 

 poster, and the common carriage-horse : indeed, Cleveland, and the Vale 

 of Pickering, in the East Riding of Yorkshire, may be considered as the 

 most decided breeding country in England for coach-horses, hunters, 

 and hacknies. The coach-horse is nothing more than a tall, strong, over- 

 sized hunter. The hackney has many of the qualities of the hunter on a 

 small scale. 



How far we are carrying supposed improvement too far, and sacrificing 

 strength and usefulness to speed, is a question not difficult to resolve. The 

 rage for rapid travelling is the bane of the post-master, the destruction of 

 the horse, and a disgrace to the English character. 



eluding' short stag-es, one thousand four hundred coaches now set out from London every 

 day ; the expense of each of which, with four horses, cannot be less than two shillings 

 and sixpence per mile. 



Hackney coaches first appeared in London in 1625, the first year of the reign of Charles 

 1. : sedan-chairs had been introduced by the Duke of Bucking'ham six years before. 



Among' the numorotis benefits arising from the services of the horse, and the improve- 

 ment of public roads and carriasres, is the speedy and regular correspondence by post. 

 The invention of this useful establishment is ascribed to Cyrus the Great. It was 

 adopted by ilie Greeks and Romans. It was introduced into France by Louis XI. in 

 1462, and we first read of it in English history about the year 1550, under Edward VI., 

 when post-houses were established, and horses provided at the rate of one penny per 

 mile. Under Elizabeth a post-master was nominated by govf rnmont, and under Charlee 

 I., in 1634, the system assumed its present form. The charge of postage was then fixed 

 at two pence, if under eighty miles; four pence between eighty and one hundred and 

 forty; and six pence if under two hundred and forty miles; but this charge rapidly 

 increased with the increasing price of horses, and the other expenses of conveyance, and 

 tftewards it was further raised by taxation, like almost everything- else. 



