STABLE MANAGEMENT 241 



horses; but if the aspect be north or north-east, 

 they must be placed in front of the horses and 

 as near the ceiling as possible. The use of windows 

 is to give light and not glare. Our forefathers recog- 

 nised this fact, and thus in old stables we often find 

 trees close to the stable windows. 



I went over some modern stables lately erected 

 at large expense. They included stabling for thirty 

 horses and a Turkish bath for the horses ; but 

 the aspect was wrong ; the windows were wrongly 

 placed, and there was not, within a hundred yards, 

 even a shrub to protect the stable from the glare 

 of the sun. There were not even holland blinds to 

 the windows, which there should be to all windows. 

 On inquiry I found that the architect knew nothing 

 about horses. He had expended his energy on 

 decorative art. The effect was unsportsmanlike, and 

 cruel to the horses. 



Now, our forefathers, with all their want of know- 

 ledge of sanitation, would never have allowed 

 the eyesight of their horses to be ruined in order 

 to satisfy the pride of a Pecksniffian architect in 

 the elaborateness of his art. I am no admirer 

 of the late Victorian style of architecture in any 

 form ; but to erect a building which is both un- 

 comfortable and deleterious to those who have to 

 inhabit it is little short of criminal We possess 

 many modern improvements, as they are termed, 

 which our ancestors did not know of, but unless 

 they are put in a good case they are of no use to 



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