74 THE TURF 



and * horse play is rough/ But we do not 

 wonder at their becoming vicious : highly 

 bred as they are, hot in blood, and their 

 tender and nearly hairless skins irritated 

 by a coarse brush, and, after sweating, 

 scraped with rather a sharp wooden in- 

 strument, that, we repeat, is no wonder. 

 Nevertheless, it seldom happens that they 

 hurt the boys who look after them. Indeed, 

 it is an interesting sight to witness a little 

 urchin of a stable-boy approach, with perfect 

 safety to himself, an animal that would 

 perhaps be the death of the strongest man 

 in the land who might be rash enough to 

 place himself within his reach. To what 

 shall we attribute this passive obedience 

 of an animal of such vast power and proud 

 spirit to a diminutive member of the crea- 

 tion an abortion of nature, indeed, as we 

 might be almost induced to call him 

 whether to self-interest or to gratitude, to 

 love or to fear, or to that unspeakable magic 

 power which the Almighty has given to the 

 eye and voice of even the child of man ? 



Precocity of intellect in a stunted frame 

 is the grand desideratum in a Newmarket 

 nursery, where chubby cheeks and the ' fine 



