CARRIAGE HORSES AND COBS. 191 



one, tells how he saw Marshland Shales at a fair in 

 Norwich, when he was a boy, and the horse was old : — 



"Nothing very remarkable about that creature, un- 

 less in being smaller than the rest, and gentle, which 

 they are not. He is almost dun, and over one eye a 

 thick film has gathered. But stay, there is something 

 remarkable about that horse ; there is something in 

 his action in which he differs from all the rest. As 

 he advances, the clamor is hushed, all eyes are turned 

 upon him. What looks of interest, — of respect ! 

 And what is this ? People are taking off their hats ; 

 surely not to that steed ! Yes, verily, men, especially 

 old men, are taking off their hats to that one-eyed 

 steed, and I hear more than one deep-drawn Ah ! 

 ' What horse is that ? ' I said to one very old fel- 

 low, dressed in a white frock. ' The best in Mother 

 England,' said the very old man, taking a knobbed 

 stick from his mouth, and looking me in the face, 

 at first carelessly, but presently with something like 

 interest. 'He is old, like myself, but can still trot 

 his twenty miles an hour. You won't live long, my 

 swain, — tall and overgrown ones like thee never 

 does ; yet if you should chance to reach my years, 

 you may boast to thy great-grandboys that thou hast 

 seen Marshland Shales.'" 



The hackney is almost too plain to be called a car- 

 riage horse, and yet he has some style, a great deal of 

 strength, and much more speed than the larger and 

 more elegant sort. Many hackneys, indeed, have 

 showy and beautiful action. Moreover, having been 

 bred in something very like its present form for a 

 hundred and fifty years, the type is more likely to be 

 reproduced than is that of the Cleveland bay or York- 



