THE AUSTUIAX IIOKSK. 47 



tlie excess of tlieir agony and terror, dart full against it, tear tlirough it, 

 or carry it aAvay. 



After all, the prize is nothing more than an ornamental flag ; but it is 

 presented Toy the governor of Rome, and it is supposed to be a pledge of 

 the speed and value of the horse which will descend as an heir-loom from 

 generation to generation among the peasantry, to whom many of these 

 horses belong. The decision of such a race, however, can have little to do 

 Avith the speed or strength or value of the horses in any respect. The 

 Italians, however, enter into the affair with all their characteristic eager- 

 ness of feelmg, and are guilty of every kind of extravagance. During the 

 first six days of the carnival, the horses are fairly classed according to the 

 age, height, degree of breeding, &c. ; but on the last two days — the 

 choice days — they run altogether, and some in the manner that I have 

 described, and thus increase the confusion, the riot, and the danger of the 

 exhibition. 



The Corso is very nearly a mile, and it has occasionally been run in two 

 minutes and twenty-one seconds : a very quick pace for small horses, 

 many of them not more than fourteen hands high. Races of a similar 

 character take place at Florence, of which Mrs. Piozzi gives the following 

 description : — ' The street is covered with saw-dust, and made fast at 

 both ends. Near the starting-post are elegant booths, lined with red 

 velvet, for the court and first nobility. At the other end a piece of tapestry 

 is hung, to prevent the creatures from dashing their brains out when they 

 reach the goal. Thousands and tens of thotisands of people on foot fill the 

 course, so that it is a great wonder to me still that numbers are not killed. 

 The prizes are exhibited to view in quite the old classical style — a piece 

 of crimson damask for the winner ; a small silver basin and ewer for the 

 second ; and so on, leaAang no performer unrewarded. 



' At last come out the horses, without riders, but with a narrow leathern 

 strap hung across their bodies, which has a lump of ivory fixed to the end 

 of it, all set full of sharp spikes like a hedgehog, and this goads them 

 along while galloping, worse than any spur could do, because the faster 

 they run the more this old machine keeps jumping up and down, and 

 jDricking their sides ridiculously enough ; and it makes one laugh to see 

 that some of them are so tickled by it as not to run at all, but set about 

 plunging in order to rid themselves of the inconvenience, instead of driving 

 forward to divert the mob, who leap, and caper, and shout with delight, 

 and lash the laggers along with great indignation indeed, and with the 

 most comical gestures.' 



Before we quit the neighbourhood of Italy, Ave may perhaps notice 

 another curious mode of horse-racing, practised in Malta. The horses 

 here are indeed mounted, but they have neither saddle nor bridle. The 

 riders sit on the bare back, and have nothing to guide or to spur on their 

 horses, but a small pointed instrument, not unlike a cobbler's aAvl. These 

 horses are small barbs, well tempered, or they would resist this mode of 

 management, and they certainly are not swift. By pricking the horse on 

 one side or the other of the neck, the rider can guide him a little in the 

 way he should go, and certainly he may urge him to his fullest speed ; but 

 still, although it affords a noA^el and amusing sight to the stranger, the 

 horse and the spectators are degTaded by such an exhibition. 



THE AUSTKIAN HORSE. 



The folloAving account is given by the Duke of Ragusa of the imperial 

 establishment for the breeding of horses at Mesohagyes, near Carlsburg, 

 in Austria : — ' This is the finest establishment in the Austrian monarchy 

 for the breeding and impi^ovement of horses. It stands on 40,000 acres of 



