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its object, it was also the source of much cruelty and mischief. Horses 

 were strained and torn to pieces for amusement, instead of having 

 their strength fairly used in profitable labour. And that which turned 

 the whole into an insufferable nuisance, farm servants in general, were 

 seized with the drawing mania, and would take every opportunity, out 

 of their master's sight, of trying team against team, or Horse against 

 Horse, by which they often did their Horses more harm than would 

 have occurred from a month's regular work. Besides, the drawing 

 dead pulls is often attended with great cruelty, since numbers, even of 

 the best cattle in every other respect, can neyer be brought, by the 

 utmost abuse, to exert themselves, when they feel the impossibility of 

 moving the weight. The form of these Horses, obviously productive 

 of such unequalled efforts in draught, might have been a sufficient 

 mark and inducement for preserving so valuable a breed, independently 

 of the introduction of drawing as an amusement. But this sport had 

 its day ; in fact, has been extinct these thirty years, and even the 

 breed, with which it Avas performed; an individual of which, could 

 not, I believe, be now procured in any part of Suffolk, or elsewhere, 

 did ever so great an interest depend upon it. 



The chief part of Suffolk, for the punches, was in the sands, towards 

 the coast. Some of them high in repute, fetched very considerable 

 prices for that time. A relation of mine in Essex, had one, a very 

 noted drawer, A^alued at a hundred guineas, one year, and stolen from 

 him, for nothing, the succeeding. Yet these famous Horses did not 

 make their way much out of Suffolk, any more than the sport of 

 drawing; nor were they in any great request in distant counties, until 

 they were no longer to be obtained, when premiums were advertised 

 for them : this is in course. 



Let us not forget, in order to mark the absurdity of such a custom, 

 the plug tails of the old punches, retained indeed yet, among many of 

 the new breed. The tail is left only two or three inches long, and the 

 spigot end, about an inch, clipped clear of the hair. Whether a fanci- 

 ful Martinet in Queen Anne's reign. Lord Cadogan, who plugged all 

 the heavy dragoon Horses, did it of his own head, or derived the 

 custom from his elders, or from his contemporary Suffolk farmers ; or 



R whether 



