FAULTS INSEPARABLE FROM STABLES. 



287 



across the shoulders, from seventeen to twenty inches. An anhnal of 

 moderate size can barely squeeze through a clear gap of twenty-two 

 inches width. Then, taking the man at the lowest standard, and adding 

 seventeen to twenty-two inches, we obtain thirty-nine inches, as the 

 smallest amount of room which servant and quadruped could manage 

 to pass through. Such a close measurement, however, supposes the 

 two living beings to touch one another, as well as to graze the sides of 

 the passage. Against such gross usage, the innate dignity of cockade, 

 leathers, and riding coat would ahke protest I 



Three feet six inches, however, allow exactly one inch to divide the 

 door posts from the man and -from the horse ; while an inch also remains 

 to separate the dignity of the domestic from the simplicity which it is 

 conducting. The margin is not very ample ; and both creatures must 

 march with uncommon steadiness for neither of the animals to touch the 

 posts, or to rub against the other. 



Five feet, certainly, afford more ample quarters. Through such a 

 frame both man and horse, supposing each to be quietly disposed, may 

 pass with ease. Even so vast a limit, however, will not allow the groom 

 to dispense with every care. An animal may, reasonably, be delighted 

 when it sniffs the fresh air ; and it may 

 be permitted to perform a few pranks, 

 as it quits positive stagnation to make 

 the nearest approach to freedom which 

 its enslaved condition can sanction. 

 School-boys do not observe any sever- 

 ity of order, when they cast aside their 

 tasks to throng into the play-ground. 

 Yet the youths are confined to study 

 only for a comparatively short period. 

 But what must be the feelings of the 

 steed, when leaving the heated stable 

 and the narrow stall, where it has prob- 

 ably been imprisoned for twenty -two 

 consecutive hours ? 



Who among us, if he had the power, 

 would check the graceful prancings and 

 elegant carvetings, by which a simple 

 nature announces its sense of happi- 

 ness ? To human feeling, an idea of 

 having to carry another's weight, in the 

 direction and at the pace the rider pleases to command ; to have a sharp 

 bit pulled against the tender angles of the lips; to be flogged with a 



"DOWN IN THE hip;" OR A HORSE WITH THB 

 BONE OF ONE HIP FRACTURED. 



