SALT MARSHES 233 



where the proper changes and purifications cannot 

 take place in the lungs, and from the egregious folly 

 of pampering an animal in a heat of seventy degrees, 

 when his utility depends upon his being able to 

 perform his work with comfort and ease in an atmo- 

 sphere of forty." 



" Great benefit has to my knowledge," observes 

 another correspondent (Snaffle), " frequently arisen 

 from a summer run in a salt marsh, where a part was 

 daily flooded at high water, and where the pasture 

 was not too luxuriant, and the necessary shelter 

 afforded. It has, I am aware," he continues, " its 

 disadvantages ; among which may be numbered the 

 dangers likely to arise from huddling so many horses 

 together ^ as are generally found in a marsh, and that 

 it does not suit all constitutions, or, generally speaking, 

 young horses." 



As Snaffle asks my opinion on this plan I readily 

 give it, acknowledging at the same time that I 

 never tried it, nor would I recommend anyone to 

 do so. About two months ago I spent a week with a 

 friend of mine in Warwickshire, who, amongst all 

 the agreeable things this world can afford, has three 

 good hunters in his stable. " Now," said he to me, 

 " I have found out how to get hunters into condition ! 

 Don't preach to me about hard meat and alteratives ; 

 but give me a good salt marsh." Going the next 

 day into the stable, I saw his favourite horse with 

 a very enlarged hock. " What's this, Will ? " said I 



^ There is the same risk (though a greater one) attending any 

 horses sent to the agistor's. — Revising Editor. 



