STABLES. 137 



Most men wlio are intending to build new stables, 

 particularly rich, men, are anxious that the building 

 should have some pretensions to beauty, and there- 

 fore employ an architect to make a drawing or 

 elevation of them to begin with. The architect 

 often makes a pleasing elevation to begin with, and 

 then cuts up the accommodation to suit the drawing, 

 to the discomfiture of the animals which are to live 

 in it. 



Instead of this, the owner of the horses ought to 

 mark out on paper exactly what internal accommo- 

 dation he wants, and then tell the architect to make 

 the outside to fit it and add any ornamentation he 

 pleases. In fact stables should be planned, and 

 built, on a similar method to that by which a man 

 once proposed to construct a cannon, and that was, 

 to get a hole the size you wanted, and put some 

 brass round it. 



There are two ways in which a horse can be 

 housed ; viz. first, where two or more horses are in 

 one building divided into compartments, and where 

 each horse is tied up, and secondly, where each horse 

 has a separate box and is loose. ' The first of these 

 are called stalls or standings, and the second are 

 called loose boxes. 



It is generally the fashion in building stables to 

 have the greater part of the stables in stalls, with one 

 or more loose boxes. This I do not consider the 

 best plan, for a loose box has all the advantages 



