COBS AND THEIR MASTERS GOURMANDS. 131 



If by cob (for I would not be prejudiced by a name) 

 a man means a low strong well-put together little 

 horse, with good action, and one that is quite willing 

 to make the most of that action, to such a cob as this 

 I take off my hat with every respect : he is a most 

 useful little gentleman, and just such as I like for a 

 hack. A neat light head, and neck well set on, 

 shoulders well back, loins and ribs like a Madeira 

 cask, with as good stuff inside, gaskins and hocks like 

 a race-horse his only disqualifications for being one 

 arising from his being too low, too compact, and not 

 being thorough-bred this is the kind of cob I like, 

 and such a one as I should pick out to carry any man, 

 however heavy ; the only difference being, that one of 

 this sort that can carry 18 st. is worth a couple of hundred, 

 whereas I could get one to carry me for fifty, but they 

 should both be of the same sort, if each wishes to be 

 carried equally well. Heavy men do get cobs for 

 twenty, that, as they may term it, carry them : they 

 get a beast, and they sit upon him, I know, but they 

 are not carried at all. If they are content with this 

 sort of locomotion, happy are they "a contented 

 mind is a perpetual feast." Now as such cobs are in 

 most cases perpetually feasted, and as such equestrians 

 perpetually feast themselves, they are both contented : 

 may they never separate, " for sure such a pair were 

 never seen ! " &c. &c. 



But if a man who rides heavy really wishes to be 

 carried, allow me to ask what advantages he promises 

 himself in purchasing such a beast ? If he thinks he 

 is stronger than my sort of cob, he most certainly is 

 in error. I do not know whether the first might or 

 might not stand still for a short time under a heavier 

 weight than the latter that is, if we came to perhaps 



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