SHOEING. 151 



terated from a memory, replete with obser- 

 vant advantages arising from reflection. If 

 I conld become so subservient to the fashion- 

 able impulse of hterary ambition, as to ex- 

 pect to be generally read, and after such 

 reading to be generally understood, I might 

 enjoy much pleasure in going over the de- 

 scriptive conformation of the bones, tendonSy 

 the inner Jieshy , and the outer horny sole, the 

 frog, and crust or hoof, with their different 

 appropriations ; but having the most indis- 

 putable reason to believe, that very abstrusity 

 of reasoning, and mysterious introduction of 

 technical terms, have in a great degree pre- 

 vented the reading of publications upon this 

 subject, I shall (in earnest hope of laying just 

 claim to superior attention) descend, like 

 the orator in one of the celebrated Foote's 

 comedies, '^ to the vale oi common sense, that 

 I may be the better understood/' 



It has been the secondary consideration 

 of these speculative writers, or theoretical 

 sportsmen, (supposing a perseverance in the 

 custom of shoeing not to be abolished upon 

 the power of their persuasions,) to propa- 

 gate and re-echo a doctrine equally absurd^ 



