But tho the form of the New-foreft horfe 

 is feldom beautiful ; yet as the ornament of 

 a foreft-fcene, he is very picturefque. The 

 horfe, in his natural ftate, rough with all 

 his mane about him, and his tail waving 

 in the wind, as he feeds, is always beautiful j 

 but particularly in fo wild a fcene as this, 

 which he graces exceedingly** 



On this fubjecl I cannot forbear digrefling 

 a little, (and I hope the reader will not be 

 too faftidious,) on the great indignity the 

 horfe fuffers from the mutilation of his tail, 

 and ears. Within this century, I believe, 

 the barbarous cuftom of docking horfes came 

 in ufe ; and hath pafTed through various mo- 

 difications, like all other cuftoms, which are 

 not founded in nature, and truth. A few 

 years ago the JJjorf dock was the only tail (if 



* Hogarth, in his analyfis of beauty, (in which, among fome 

 refinements, are many excellent remarks on forms) gives us a 

 very pidhirefque idea of the movements of " a fine Arabian horfe, 

 " unbacked, and at liberty, in a wanton trot, prefling forward ; 

 " and yet curvetting from fide to fide ; whilft his long mane, and 

 tail play about in ferpentine motion." p. 140. 



it 



