685 QUADRUPEDS. 



an excess of wealth, before unknown in these islands, increased the 

 luxury of carriages, and added to the necessity of an extraordi. 

 nary culture of these animals : their high reputation abroad has 

 also made them a branch of commerce, and proved another cause 

 of their vast increase. 



As no kingdom can boast of parallel circumstances, so none can 

 vie with us in the number of these noble quadrupeds: it would be 

 extremely difficult to guess at the exact amount of them, or to form 

 a periodical account of their increase : the uumber seems very 

 fluctuating; William Fitz-Stephen relates, that in the reign of King 

 Stephen, London alone poured out 20,000 horsemen in the wars of 

 those times : yet we find that in the beginning of Queen Elizabeth's 

 reign, the whole kingdom could not supply two thousand horses to 

 form our cavalry : and even in the year 1588, when the nation was 

 in the most imminent danger from the Spanish invasion, all the ca- 

 valry, which the nation could then furnish, amounted only to 3000 ; 

 to account for this difference we must imagine, that the number of 

 horses which took the field in Stephen's reign, was no more than an 

 undisciplined rabble ; the few that appeared under the banners of 

 Elizabeth, a corps well formed, and such as might be opposed to 

 so formidable an enemy as was then expected : but such is their 

 present increase, that in the late war, the number employed was 

 upwards of 30,000 ; and such is our improvement in the breed of 

 horses, that most of those which are used in our waggons and car- 

 riages of different kinds, might be applied to the same purpose : of 

 these, our capital alone employs about 22,000. 



Buffon has almost exhausted the subject of the natural history 

 of the horse, and the other domestic animals ; and left very little 

 for after writers to add. We may observe, that this most noble and 

 useful quadruped is endowed with every quality that can make it 

 subservient to the uses of mankind : and those qualities appear in a 

 more exalted, or in a less degree, in proportion to our various ne 

 cessities. 



Undaunted courage, added to a docility half reasoning, is given to 

 some, which fits them for military services. The spirit and emula- 

 tion so apparent in others, furnish us with that species, which is ad- 

 mirably adapted for the course; or, the more noble and generous 

 pleasure of the chace. 



Patience and perseverance appear strongly in that most useful 

 kind destined to bear the burdens we impose on them ; or that em* 

 ployed in the slavery of the draught. 



o 



