FLOWERS AS AN ADJUNCT 277 



any single case in which a serious or fatal end has 

 supervened, that the fault has been that of either the 

 veterinary surgeon or the head-lad. Indeed, it has only 

 been through the knowledge of these gentlemen, on a 

 post-mortem examination, that the true nature of the 

 disease has been traced ; that in its incipient state it was 

 fatal, and that there was nothing to be done but to let it 

 take its course, and life ebb gently away. 



In the surroundings of the stable itself, what improve- 

 ments have been made ! The unhealthy dungpit in the 

 yard has been done away with, and its place taken by 

 parterres of lovely flowers. We know how dainty horses 

 are in eating and drinking ; how water put into a bucket 

 that has before contained any greasy substance will be 

 rejected. How grateful to the olfactory powers of 

 animals with such an acute sense of smell must be the 

 aroma of these odoriferous plants, tastefully set out in 

 beds of divers colours ! These mellifluous perfumes, 

 taking the place of the deleterious gases, almost entirely 

 do away with the necessity of having choice exotics in 

 the stable itself ; for which the late Lord Hastings, 

 before coming to Danebury, once found a charge in his 

 account of 70. Moreover, who can say that the virtue 

 ends here ? Who can tell what benefit the animals may 

 derive from beholding such beautiful things on leaving 

 and returning to the stable ? What trainer, in the old 

 time, did not know the fatal effects of glanders in his 

 stable, as in the case of the late Mr. Isaac Sadler, who, 

 on first going to Stockbridge, lost nearly the whole of 

 his stud through that disease ? I may say that, then, 

 flowers were unknown as a decoration, except * in the 

 perfumed mansions of the great,' or they might have 

 proved a powerful antidote to this complaint. 



Again, as to the food given to the racehorse, how 



