OF FARRIERY. 



887 



throughout India ; and also so great a ten- 

 dency to fulness in the hocks, that, in England, 

 it would be thou2:ht half of them had blood 

 spavins." 



A writer in the " Sportsman's Magazine," 

 seems to have no great opinion of the Horses 

 in the East Indies. He describes them as 

 follows : — 



The small Mahratta Horse is an active, 

 serviceable little beast, but, in ten cases out of 

 twenty, extremely vicious, but will often make 

 a capital hunter, in fact, being the only Horse 

 in India worth his keep, the larger Horses 

 from Hindostan being adapted only for the 

 capering of a native Souwarree ; they are 

 leggy, under-limbed, and, as far as vice goes, 

 regular man-eaters. 



Those from Guzerat and Cutch are certainly 

 endowed with greater amiability of disposi- 

 tion, but are more calculated for purposes of 

 display and parade than any thing else. The 

 natives are very partial to this breed, and 

 give long prices for them, frequently as much 

 as two or three thousand rupees. They blow 

 them out to an enormous size, by feeding 

 them on a composition which must be any 

 thing but agreeable to the palate of the Horse, 

 viz., a kind of paste, made of pounded grain 

 and sheep's head, wherewith the poor devil is 

 crammed like a turkey. The end of the flow- 

 ing tail, generally reaching the ground, is 

 dyed of a deep red colour, a cruelly sharp bit 

 is put into his mouth, he is buried under a 

 ton of bedding covered with crimson cloth, 

 doing duty for saddle, and, thus caparisoned, 

 he is deemed fit to carry one of the " Pillars 

 of the State." It is a pretty sight to see a 

 Souwarree, or procession, accompanied by a 

 cavalcade thus mounted, and taking every 

 opportunity of displaying their horsemanship, 



a cavalier occasionally darting from the crowd 

 at the top of his speed, and as suddenly pullino' 

 his Horse on his haunches in the midst of his 

 headlong career, then wheeling about, and 

 still at full speed, describe in an incredibly 

 small space, the difficult figure of eight, with 

 all the apparent ease of a graceful skaiter. 



CURIOUS SPORTING CASE. 



In the Court of Common Pleas, on the 21st 

 of Jan. 1836, a curious case was argued, on 

 demurrer, before Chief Justice Tindal. The 

 facts, as set upon the pleadings, appeared to 

 be these : — The defendant was the owner of a 

 Horse named Partington, which he undertook 

 would trot eighteen miles within an hour. 

 The plaintift" agreed to purchase him for 200/. 

 on the condition that he should, within a 

 month, trot eighteen miles in an hour, to the 

 satisfaction of a third person agreed upon 

 between the parties ; otherwise, he was to be 

 allowed to have him for one shillino-. A trial 

 of the Horse's capability was accordingly 

 appointed to take place on a given day, but it 

 was interrupted by a servant of the plaintiff. 

 xVnother ti.aie was then fixed for a second trial, 

 and notice was given to the person who was* 

 to act as umpire on the occasion. The latter, 

 however, not attending, the trial did not take 

 place, the month elap.sed without the Horse 

 having performed the stipulated feat ; where- 

 upon the plaintiff demanded that the Horse 

 should be delivered up to him on payment of 

 the shilling. The defendant refused, on the 

 ground that the first trial had been interrupted 

 by the plaintiff's servant, and that a subse- 

 quent trial had not taken place merely in con- 

 sequence of the non-attendance of the referee. 

 Pleas to this effect were accordingly pleaded 

 to the plaintiff's declaration, to which the 



