COLONEL CODSHEAD 311 



whom, however, they do not seem on visiting terms ; 

 a great interregnum — supplied certainly with a pro- 

 tuberance of most puddingey calf — intervening between 

 them and the moleskins. Spurs he doesn't sport — 

 they might be dangerous. 



Colonel Codshead's anonymous - coloured, collar- 

 marked horse, is of a piece with his master — a great 

 plethoric, overfed creature, incapable of exertion if his 

 rider wished it. Indeed the evenness of condition of 

 the two is the only point we can praise ; and certainly 

 it is much more sensible for men to regulate their 

 horse's strength to their own, than to strive for that 

 tip-top condition, the property and prerogative of 

 stout nerves. What is the use of having a horse 

 equal to double the exertion the rider is capable of? 

 The Colonel's horse, in the palmy days of machiners, 

 would always have commanded forty pounds, for he 

 has size and strength enough for a wheeler ; indeed 

 we do not know but he might fetch forty pounds now, 

 prices being somewhat up. He is a dull, inanimate, 

 heavy-countenanced, ugly-looking animal, rendered 

 still worse from having been badly clipped, and being 

 now in that state of transition so trying to all horses, 

 the half-way house between his two coats. A badly 

 clipped horse looks wretched on a frosty, or cold, 

 drying day. 



There is something about hunters — indeed about 

 horses that have any pretensions to that character — 

 that shows itself before you come to the real hedging 

 and ditching work. The horse that evinces no 

 increased pleasure or activity of action on changing 

 from hard ground to grass, has seldom any seeds of 

 the chase in his composition. His forte is harness. 

 The horse that puts his feet into ruts, grips, and 

 water furrows, instead of hitching himself over them 

 as it were, will be very apt to do the same in the 

 field, and it is perfectly notorious that a man may 

 break his neck at a small place as well as at a large 



