162 THE HORSE OF AMERICA. 



lest being 1 in confusion be lose all knowledge of what you design him to, and 

 so handle his legs confusedly. The gallop is requisite for race horses. . . . 

 If he gallop round and raise his fore legs he is then said to gallop strongly, but 

 not capable of much speed, and is fitter for the war than racing." 



In 1667 the Duke of Newcastle published his famous work on 

 the horse under the title, "A New Method and Extraordinary 

 Invention to Dress Horses, and Work them According to Nature 

 and also To Perfect Nature by the Subtilty of Art which was 

 Never Found Out, but by the Thrice Noble, High, and Puissant 

 Prince, William Cavendish, Duke, Marquess, and Earl of New- 

 castle, etc., etc./' followed with twelve other titles and offices. 

 The book was dedicated to "His Most Sacred Majesty, Charles 

 the Second/' and is pretentious and magniloquent in its letter 

 press and its make-up as it is in its title. In this work there is 

 a great deal of bad English, some sense, and much nonsense, all 

 mixed up with a strut of superiority that His Grace, no doubt, 

 felt justified in enjoying after his long years of beggary in Ant- 

 werp. In giving the natural gaits of the horse he places the 

 walk first, then the trot and next the amble, which he describes 

 very minutely as follows: 



" For an amble he removes both his legs of a side, as, for example, take the 

 far side, he removes his fore leg and his hinder leg at one time, whilst the 

 other two legs of the near side stand still; and when those legs are on the 

 ground, which he first removed, at the same time they are upon the ground 

 the other side, which is the nearer side, removes fore leg and hinder leg on 

 that side, and the other legs of the far side stand still. Thus an amble removes 

 both his legs of a side and every remove changes sides; two of a side in the 

 air and two upon the ground at the same time. And this is a perfect amble." 



The duke seems to have been somewhat profuse in the use of 

 words, and not very happy in his use of them, but after all we 

 know just what he means. The description of the movement is 

 that of the clean-cut pace, and our object in introducing it here 

 is not only to show that the pace was then a well-known and 

 natural gait in England, but also to show that the pace and the 

 amUe are one. In itself, the word "amble" is a better word than 

 "pace," for the latter is often used in referring to a rate of speed 

 without regard to the particular gait taken by the horse, but in 

 this country it is now universally understood to apply to the 

 lateral motion, and it would not be wise at this day to attempt to 

 change it. There is an undefined supposition in the mind oi 

 some people that the amble is something different from the pace, 



