THE STABLE 3 



a hot stuffy stable makes a horse bright in his 

 coat and saves " elbow grease," a fact which 

 grooms were not slow to recognise ; but, though 

 they had plenty of plausible reasons to give for 

 their plans, they carefully kept this one out of 

 sight. 



One of the prejudices of the old school which 

 took a great deal of conquering was their aversion 

 to light in a stable. As carefully as they filled 

 up each chink and crevice through which a 

 breath of air could enter, so carefully did they 

 cover up all the windows they could get at 

 without much trouble. '' Horses required rest " 

 they argued, totally oblivious of the fact that 

 hours spent in a dark stable must be sadly mono- 

 tonous and that being constantly in the dark 

 is injurious to the sight. 



About the third quarter of the nineteenth 

 century, when the country was in a state of great 

 prosperity, the taste for building stables on a 

 scale of unprecedented magnificence began to 

 prevail, and wealthy men erected immense piles 

 of buildings, which in many instances erred as 

 much as the cramped dark insanitary stables 

 they replaced, though in the opposite direction. 



I am not likely to forget the first stables of 

 this kind that came under my notice. There 

 was too much of everything, too much air, too 

 much light and too much space. Big corridors 

 sent an echo all over the building if anyone 

 but walked along them, thus effectually pre- 

 venting a tired horse getting the rest he 



