THE CASE OF FERRYMAN 67 



The next summer I treated this horse precisely 

 in the same manner as in the preceding one. with the 

 exception of giving him two bushels of oats a week, 

 if he would eat them ; and at the commencement of 

 the second season I witnessed the change that had 

 taken place in his constitution. His legs were per- 

 fectly fine before and after work, and he fed well ; 

 his body spread, and his carcase dropped ; and he 

 did not sink, as before, from the effect of a good day's 

 work. Hounds, on some days, could neither go too 

 fast nor too long for him ; and in consequence of his 

 clearing a high timber fence at the end of an hour 

 test pace, I sold him to a Noble Lord for two hundred 

 guineas, who, from his being so capital a brook- 

 jumper, changed his name to Ferryman, and one day 

 saw out all the second horses on him with Sir Thomas 

 Mostyn's hounds, in a most severe run from Shuck- 

 burgh, bringing his rider a long distance home at night, 

 when several horses were left in all parts of the country. 



Notwithstanding what I have said this was not 

 naturally a good horse. When I first had him I could 

 beat him to a standstill in a quarter of an hour, and 

 to the last he had his good and bad days. In some 

 respects he was favoured by nature. From his great 

 length of frame he had a particularly smooth way of 

 going over ridge and furrow, without which no horse 

 can live long over a country at anything near the top 

 of his speed ; leaping was, comparatively, little ex- 

 ertion to him, and his pipes were remarkably clear. 

 With all these advantages, however, it depended 

 upon whether he were fit to go that he could carry a 



