66 Spread-Eagle Run. 



impressed upon the eye. This is most clearly 

 shown by watching the distant horses through a 

 glass. But still we stick to the anatomically im- 

 possible spread-eagle stride of the turf, and feel 

 that it conveys the idea of speed which is not 

 compassed by the SQ.i facsimiles of photography. 



It has been alleged that a horse never does, nor 

 can take the spread position of the typical racer 

 of the artist. This is true enough, for he never 

 does extend himself to so great a degree. But 

 at one part of the leap he may do this very thing, 

 though by no means to the extent usually de- 

 picted (see Plate XL). It is, however, certain that 

 he cannot do so at all in the gallop. At the only 

 time when all his feet are off the ground in this 

 gait, they are all close together under his girths. 

 At all other times there are one or more feet on 

 the ground, with legs straight, and at greater 

 or less inclination to the body. From front to 

 rear the legs move almost like the spokes of a 

 wheel. What the pictures of the turf in the fu- 

 ture may be it is hard indeed to say. 



And yet, the longer one examines the many 

 hundred silhouettes of running horses, so well 

 grouped for anatomical study in the Stanford 

 Book, the more reconciled to what there is of 

 truth in them one may become. Many years ago, 

 I sat during the forenoon in the Turner Room of 

 the National Gallery in London, in the company 



