176 MODERN FAllRIEll. 



and a fuller and loftier crest and forehand than those 

 geldings that have undergone it when very young. 

 This operation is perliaps carried to too great an ex- 

 tent in this country ; and it is really a pity to ob- 

 serve such a number of fine well-formed geldings 

 rendered incapable of propagating their kind. It is 

 at least surprising that unmutilated horses are not 

 more used in the army. When our troops landed 

 in Egypt, they found the Mamelukes all mounted 

 on stallions; and the French confessed that their 

 cavalry which served in Eg3'^pt, and which general 

 Doyle says was decidedly the finest European he 

 ever saw, did riot dare to meet them with equal 

 numbers. The horses were so excellent, and the 

 riders so dexterous, that had they understood our 

 military manceuvres, tliey would have been invinci- 

 ble. On the subject of castration, a popular writer 

 expresses himself in the following manner : 



* Castration is more practised in England than in 

 any other part of Europe. It certainly renders the 

 animal more tractable, and it gives the opportunity 

 of turning him to grass with mares as well as with 

 horses with less danger of mischief. But it en- 

 feebles him both in make and constitution, for the 

 gelding is certainly more delicate and less capable of 

 bearing the extremes of heat and cold ; and it is 

 worthy of observation, that even the stallions which 

 work in the brewers' drays in London, and which 

 are never clothed in the stable, and are often obliged 

 to stand many hours in the streets, are always fuller 

 of flesh and finer in their coats than the geldings of 

 the same description. In the shape and character 

 of the head there is a very evident difference be- 

 tween the stallion and the gelding. In the stallion 

 the forehead is broader, and the eyes bolder and 

 more prominent ; the nostrils are larger and capable 

 of greater expansion ; the windpipe, or trachea, is 

 larger ; and hence, very probably, may be traced the 



