8 INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. 



tranflation of the foreign veterinary writers, 

 but of his own proper knowledge and expe- 

 rience of the fubjecl;. With refpect to the 

 merits of Blundevill, as a veterinary writer, he 

 undoubtedly pofieffed a thorough practical 

 knowledge of the animal on which he treated, 

 as far as the lights of the time, in which he 

 lived, extended. Englifhmen had not yet 

 learned to reafon for themfelves, and the bar- 

 barous practice of the Continental Manege, 

 by which the moll generous and docile of all 

 animals was driven to obedience by torturing 

 bits, and cruel ufage, inftead of being gently 

 reduced by foothing means, and by the help of 

 implements uninjurious to his tender flefh, 

 was in full force among them. Thus we are 

 prefented in Blundevill's book with plates of 

 near fifty different bits; with an account of 

 fpoons, gags, ring (hoes, trammels for pacing, 

 and a variety of inftruments of torture, alto- 

 gether as ufelefs to any good purpofe, as they 

 were fenfelefs and cruel. But, however, gene- 

 rally a flave to authority in thefe matters, we 

 fometimes find the Englifhman getting the 

 better of this author, and prompting him 

 to queftion the real utility of fuch rigorous 

 meafures to force obedience; a remarkable 

 inflance of which we have in his declaration, 

 that notwithflanding the variety of patterns 

 for bits which he had exhibited, he really 



thought 



