BROOD MARES AND COLTS 215 



The other letter which calls for my attention is from 

 the same part of the world, and treats of the effects 

 of the late distemper among horses.^ It concludes 

 with the following passages : — " Though I cannot 

 subscribe to all the doctrines advanced by your 

 ingenious correspondent Nimrod, yet I gladly add 

 my mite to the proof that it is a very mistaken notion 

 to give hunters a summer's run, under the idea of 

 freshening their feet and legs. I can now call to mind 

 five hunters turned out last summer perfectly sound, 

 and which became lame at grass." Now this I consider 

 a main prop to my argument, as it is evident the writer 

 knows what he is about, if he be not a professional 

 man. If, as he asserts, the stable or loose house is 

 the best place for the legs and feet, no doubt can remain 

 as to its being the best for the body, where extremes 

 of heat and cold, as well as accidents, can be avoided — 

 setting aside the folly of putting a load of flesh on an 

 animal, which must almost all come off again at the ex- 

 pense of his legs. When speaking of extremes of heat 

 and cold, reader, mark this ! The thermometer stood two 

 degrees lower on the twenty- fourth of June 1824 than 

 it did on Christmas-day ! This is the old story over 

 again, but it cannot be too deeply impressed on the 

 observation of the reader. " Nunquam nimis dicitur 

 quod nunquam satis discitur." — " A man cannot repeat 

 those things too often which we cannot too minutely 

 observe," is somewhere about the English of it. 



I wish I had not again to notice your correspondent 

 X. B., as but little pleasure or amusement can arise 



1 See Sporting Magazine, vol. xv. N.S. p. 96. 



