i}8 THE DIFFERENT EKEEDS OF ENGLISH HOESES. 



act of walking ; and, consequently, the power of drawing must be pvopor- 

 tionably diminished. If he trots ten miles in the hour, more animal power 

 is expended in the trot, and less remains for the draught ; but the di-aught 

 continues the same, and, to enable him to accompHsh his work, he must 

 tax his energies to a serious degree ; and this taxing, this exhaustion, this 

 suffering, must be increased to a most merciless extent in the poor beast 

 that, with all his powers required to draw the load behind him, has to 

 carry the extra weight of the post-boy. Skilful breeding, and high health, 

 and stimulating food, and a very limited time of work, can alone enable 

 him to endure the labour long, on the supposition that the system which 

 has just been described is resorted to. But the coach proprietor is not 

 always sufiiciently enlightened, or good-hearted, to see on which side his 

 interest hes ; and then the work is accomplished by the overstrained ex- 

 ertion the injury — the torture — the destiniction of the team. That 



which is true of the coach-horse is equally so of every other. Let the 

 reader apply it to his own animal, and act as hnmanity and interest dictate. 

 Many a horse used on the public roads is unable to thi^ow all his natural 

 power or weight into the collar. He is tender-footed — lame ; but he is 

 bought at little price, and he is worked on the brutal and abominable 

 principle, that he may be ' whipped sound.'' And so, apparently, he is. 

 At fh-st he sadly halts ; but urged by the torture of the lash, he acquires 

 a peculiar habit of going. The faulty Hmb appears to keep pace with the 

 others, but no sti-ess or labour is thro^vn upon it, and he gi^adually con- 

 trives to make the sound limbs perform among them all the duties of the 

 unsound one ; and thus he is barbarously ' whipped sound,' and cruelty is 

 undeservedly rewarded. 



After all, however, what has been done ? Three legs are made to do 

 that which was almost too hard a task for foui'. Then they must be most 

 injuriously strained, and soon worn out, and the general power of the 

 animal must be rapidly exhausted, and, at no great distance of time 

 disease and death release him from his merciless persecutors. Fortunately, 

 for the sake of humanity, this cruel and painful era has passed away, and 

 even could the incalculable advantages of the rail to mankind alone be 

 overlooked or undervalued, its introduction and use must be hailed with 

 delight as superseding the suffering and torture inevitably accompanying 

 the later years of posting, stage coaching, and the conveying of the mails. 

 It is said, that between Glasgow and Edinburgh, a carrier in a single- 

 horse cart, weighing about seven hundredweight, will take a load of a ton, 

 and at the rate of twenty-two miles in a day. The Normandy carriers 

 travel with a team of four horses, and from fourteen to twenty-two miles 

 in a day, with a load of ninety hundred weight. 



An unparalleled instance of the poAver of a horse when assisted by art, 

 was shown near Croydon. The Surrey iron railway being completed, a 

 wao-er was laid between two gentlemen, that a moderate-sized horse 

 could draw thirty- six tons six miles along the road — that he should 

 draw the weight from a dead pull, as well as turn it round the occasional 

 wnndino-s of the road. A mimerous party of gentlemen assembled near 

 ISIerstham to see this extraordinary triumph of art. Twelve waggons 

 laden with stones, each waggon weighing above thi-ee tons, were chained 

 together, and a horse, taken promiscuously from the timber carts of Mr, 

 Harwood, was yoked to the train. He started from the Fox public-house, 

 near Merstham, and drew the immense chain of waggons, with apparent 

 ease, almost to the turnpike at Croydon, a distance of six miles, in one 

 hour and forty-one minutes, which is nearly at the rate of four miles an 

 hour. In the course of the journey he was stopped four times, to show 

 that it was not by any advantage of descent that this power was acquired ; 



