THE DOMESTIC HORSE. 203 



fearful sound of shot, shrapnel-shells, and rockets ; 

 and it is most painful to witness their look of ter- 

 ror in battle, and groans upon heing wounded. Yet 

 many of the terrified animals, when let loose at a 

 charge, dash forward in a kind of desperation that 

 makes it difficult to hold them in hand; and w r e 

 recollect at a charge, in 1794, when the light dra- 

 goon troop-horse was larger than at present, and 

 the French were wretchedly mounted, a party of 

 British bursting through a hostile squadron as they 

 would have passed through a fence of rushes. 



Horses have a very good memory ; in the darkest 

 nights they will find their way homeward, if they 

 have but once passed over the same road. They 

 remember kind treatment, as was manifest in a 

 charger that had been two years our own; this 

 animal had been left with the army, and was brought 

 back and sold in London : about three years after, 

 we chanced to travel up to town, and at a relay, 

 getting out of the mail, the off- wheel horse attracted 

 our attention, and upon going near to examine it 

 with more care, we found the animal recognizing 

 its former master, and testifying satisfaction by 

 rubbing its head against our clothes, and making 

 every moment a little stamp with the fore-feet, till 

 the coachman asked if the horse was not an ac- 

 quaintance. We remember a beautiful and most 

 powerful charger belonging to a friend, then a cap- 

 tain in the 14th dragoons, bought by him in Ireland 

 at a comparative low price, on account of an im- 

 petuous viciousness, which had cost the life of one 



