288 ON DRAFT CATTLE. 



getting rid of cripples was enhanced, it might 

 poflibly be a general inducement, to treat horfes 

 With more provident care and humanity. 



But amongfl thefe complaints, it is with the 

 utmoft pleafure, that I can record the liberality 

 and found difcretion, of many of our keepers of 

 ftage-horfes, who not only purchafe excellent 

 cattle, at very confiderable prices, but keep 

 them in the higheft order, and work them fair- 

 ly. As a pleafing inftance, amongfl; many, I 

 have formerly feen the Colchefter coach-horfes 

 in fuch high condition, and fo much above 

 their work, that they were ready to bound out 

 of their harnefs at ftarting ; and what was infi- 

 nitely to the credit of the proprietors, I have 

 known horfes laft a great number of years in 

 their fervice. I mould think that a nag, en- 

 tirely frefh, muff, be cheaper to a coach-mafler, 

 at double the price, than a fecond-hand one, 

 the finews of which, mod probably, have ftart- 

 ed ; at the fame time, I am fully aware of the 

 difficulty of procuring a fufficient number of 

 the former. 



There can be no doubt but that extraordi- 

 nary care would amend the condition of poor 

 poft-horfes, and alfo contribute highly to the 

 intereft of proprietors : thefe fhould always 

 make it their bufmefs to underitand Horfes 

 thoroughly, in all their concerns, and to truft 

 as little as pomble to their fervants. I am now 



fpeaking 



