106 THE REV. J. G. WOOD. 



various months. This was followed hy " Anecdotal 

 Natural History," also a joint production, and con- 

 sisting of a series of articles originally contributed 

 to the Practical Teacher. Then came " Petland Ee- 

 visited," a revised, enlarged, and illustrated edition of 

 the " Glimpses into Petland," which had appeared just 

 twenty years previously, and which was now brought 

 up to almost double its original size. And then my 

 father set to work upon a book which he had had in 

 contemplation for many years, and for which, mean- 

 while, he had gradually been accumulating material. 



This was intended to point out the utter absurdity 

 of the treatment almost invariably received by the 

 horse. Man, my father held, with regard to this 

 animal, sets Nature altogether at defiance. He creates 

 for himself an artificial standard of beauty. He maims 

 the creature and impairs its usefulness by the very 

 means which he takes to improve its power of work. 

 And in all that he does for it, in respect to either its 

 accommodation, its food, or its personal treatment, there 

 seems a deliberate wrongheadedness, a careful rejection 

 of the better way in favour of the worse, which can 

 only be explained by supposing a sort of inherent 

 perversity in those who have to do with horse manage- 

 ment, and an obstinate determination to travel on in 

 the same beaten track in opposition to all the dictates 

 of common sense, of experience, and of science. 

 Nature permits unshod horses to travel over the 

 hardest and roughest of ground without the slightest 

 injury to the hoofs; man, who thinks that he knows very 



