PREFACE. 



IT is a truth generally acknowledged and unl- 

 tersally lamented^, that amidst all the improve- 

 ments of the present age^ none has received so little 

 advanta2:e from the ravs of refinement as the Art 

 of Farriery. And it must likewise be confessed it 

 is an ill compliment to a country abounding with 

 sportsmen, and those remarkable for their extreme 

 liberality^ that the intellectual faculties of many 

 distinguished members of the different learned so- 

 cieties should be absorbed in abstruse contempla- 

 tions and intense lucubrations upon the antiquity 

 of a coin, the proboscis of an elepliant, the genus 

 of an exotic, or the beautiful variegations of a but- 

 terflt/ ; while ^branch of science and study* involv- 

 ing the health, safety, and preservation^, of the most 

 beautiful and esteemed animal this kingdom has to 

 boast, is neglected, as derogatory to the dignity of 

 amah of letters: and, from this mistaken idea of 

 degradation, a subject of so much consequence has 

 been for many years submitted to the arbitrary dic- 

 tation of the most iditerate part of the community, 

 without a single effort of weight or influence to abo- 

 lish the ancient and almost obsolete mode of prac- 

 tice; or a single attempt made, from proper auiho-' 

 rity, to introduce the modern improvements and dis- 



