306 STABLES AS THEY SHOULD BE. 



be clothed more lightly than when standing still within the stable. It 

 is fashionable for a groom to exercise a horse in full body-clothes : such 

 a custom seems like tempting cough and cold, to which the quadruped, 

 in this climate, is too much disposed. It must feel the change when its 

 owner rides forth upon its unclothed body, and must suffer severely, 

 should the master not return to the stable till the sun is down. Any 

 active man should with perfect ease walk four miles in an hour; but 

 such a rate is quick enough to oblige the animal to proceed at a gentle 

 trot, which should not provoke perspiration, but will be sufficient exer- 

 tion to promote a healthy glow of the skin. 



Each groom, when on the ambulatory, should walk between two 

 horses, holding a rein in either hand. Should one of the animals show 

 signs of excitement, he is to leave the quiet one behind to the care of 

 any person who may be at hand, and to run once or twice round the 

 building with the spirited steed. Such a manoeuvre is all that is neces- 

 sary to quiet those creatures which, on first quitting the boxes, may skip 

 or prance about. 



When returned to the stable, the horse does not enter solitary confine- 

 ment. Its loose box is eighteen feet square, and is inclosed by a fence 

 seven feet high. Only four feet of this partition is composed of close 

 inch and a half boarding. At that height, a stout rail, having its edges 

 rounded, is fixed upon the topmost edge of the wood-work. From this 

 rail spring round iron bars, placed three inches asunder, and having the 

 higher extremity inserted into another rail, which is also rounded. 



Since the author, many years ago, first thought of an open trevise, he 

 is happy to see the idea has been generally adopted. Too many of the 

 parties who embrace the notion, however, make it secondary to ornamen- 

 tation, and compel the simple intention to assume the shape of scroll 

 work oj* of an elaborated pattern. The object is to permit the prisoners 

 to see and to communicate one with another. Both of these purposes 

 are better attained by a straight iron bar than by a fanciful decoration, 

 which last, moreover, must be further objectionable on the score of ex- 

 pense. 



All needful security would be well assured by an inclosure which, 

 unlike the common trevise, would allow the quadruped to see its com- 

 panions, and to exchange those recognitions which must lighten the 

 tedium of captivity. Nor can the writer comprehend why such simple 

 pleasures should be denied to these gentle creatures, which most men 

 imprison more closely than carnivorous ferocities are commonly confined. 

 The prevention of certain deadly diseases might apply to the stables of 

 an inn ; but such occurrences have no right to be regarded as probabili- 

 ties when a gentleman's establishment has to be considered. 



