308 EUROPEAN AGRICULTURE. 



gentleman s stable, for himself and his huntsmen ; and in one 

 instance, I found a stud of eighty horses, of different kinds, ex 

 clusive of the farm-horses. The perfection to which these ani 

 mals have been brought, the condition in which they are kept, 

 the tenderness, and kindness, and care, with which they are 

 treated, and the admirable manner in which they are groomed, 

 are circumstances, here, all over the country, in the highest de 

 gree worthy of remark. I have already referred to them. Their 

 hours of rest, of feeding, and labor, are observed with strict 

 ness ; their stables are spacious, lofty, well-ventilated, and 

 adapted to preserve, as far as may be, an equable temperature : 

 they are carefully bedded, and cleanly littered, and whatever 

 would be offensive, at once removed ; they are thoroughly cur 

 ried, and brushed, and a horse brought into the stable, in a state 

 of perspiration, is never left until he is completely dried by rub 

 bing ; nor, in any case, have I seen a horse left to stand still, ex 

 posed to a cold draught of air. The treatment of them is most 

 exemplary and creditable ; and is no more than just to animals, 

 incapable of taking care of themselves, to whom we are indebted 

 for so much of pleasure, and so much of profit. At the house 

 of an eminent nobleman, whose hospitality I enjoyed, it was the 

 invariable custom of the family, ladies and guests, as well as 

 the master, about nine o clock in the evening, to go, by a covered 

 passage, into the stables, where thirty horses were kept, to see 

 that the grooms and ostlers were at their post, that the horses 

 were well, and cared for, and the stable in good order. Nothing 

 could exceed the cleanliness and order in which every thing ap 

 peared. At one of the principal breweries in London, where 

 forty of the largest size dray-horses are kept, the manager in 

 formed me that, after six years hard service, the horses receive 

 their freedom, are sent into the country, exempted from all labor, 

 and kindly cared for during the rest of their lives. I confess, in 

 observing these kind provisions, and this extraordinary care, I 

 have not been able to suppress the wish, that many of the bipeds, 

 who share with these animals in the labor of the field, not un- 

 frequently performing the hardest part of it, could experience, 

 in their own persons, an equal care, and find in their cottages, on 

 their return from a hard day s work, even a moiety of the com 

 forts with which the stables of their co-laborers are provided. It 

 would be doing great injustice, to say that this is not often done 



