12 J'ili^ HORSE. 



more than human behigs, to grow healthy upon 

 poison, or to fatten upon filth. 



Before any one can obtain a mature acquaintance 

 with the character of the horse, he must have had 

 no ordinary experience of his habits. He must have 

 been almost cradled in the manger; his life must have 

 been passed in the stable. This would be little suit- 

 able to commercial life, the members of which are 

 drilled from the school to the counter; there they 

 serve an apprenticeship ; then are probably shop- 

 men ; and eventually they are started upon the road. 

 Well, they thenceforth travel from town to town, 

 canvass for orders, arrive quite jaded at their resting 

 place for the evening, and entrust their equally jaded 

 companion to the ostler of the inn. In the course 

 of time they probably pick up some dear-bought 

 experience ; but it is not in the nature of things 

 that they should attain any very profound or correct 

 ideas of the management of horses. Numerous 

 tradesmen, and persons who have been brought up 

 to professions, may also understand the force and ap- 

 plicability of these observations, although they may 

 be slow to confess that the cap fits themselves. 



IMPOSITIONS TO WHICH A TRAVELLER IS SUBJECTED. 



Manifold are the impositions practised upon the 

 unwary in travelling, and of which none but the 

 more experienced can form the least conception. 

 What can be a greater misfortune than to find that 

 your horse has met with some accident at a distance 

 from home, and you are obliged to leave him to the 

 conscience of an ostler] You have to pay not only 

 the amount of his keep, but the ostler has a friend 

 in the farrier, whose kind offices are also put in 

 requisition, and whose bill must likewise be paid; 

 and a variety of other contingencies increase the 

 sum total. A short time since a commercial travel- 



