THE STABLE. 113 



litter than to maintain it. Indeed, it is almost impos- 

 sible to keep straw under a horse perfectly pure; and 

 accordingly, throughout the United States of America, 

 and even in New York, horses are often made to lie on 

 bare boards, on which they appear to sleep just as 

 soundly as in a state of nature they would sleep on 

 ground baked hard by the sun. 



On this fact being privately whispered by us to the 

 authorities at the Horse Guards, it was at once repudiated 

 by the assertion that it would ruin English cavalry horses 

 were they to be made to sleep without litter on hard 

 boards; and yet all the soldiers of Europe, cavalry as 

 well as infantry, in their guard rooms sleep and snore on 

 wooden beds, probably a good deal sounder than do their 

 respective sovereigns on bedding composed of wool, hair, 

 down, feathers, fine linen, blankets, and counterpanes. 



" Canst thou, partial Sleep ! give thy repose 

 To the wet sea-boy in an hour so rude ; 

 And, in the calmest and most stillest night, 

 With all appliances and means to hoot, 

 Deny it to a king ?" Henry IV. 



Another disadvantage of straw-litter is that horses with 

 a voracious appetite are sometimes prone to eat it, whether 

 it be clean or dirty. To prevent them from thus dis- 

 tending as well as injuring their stomachs, it is usual 

 to inflict upon them a muzzle, which, by impeding 

 respiration, is more or less injurious to the lungs. 



H 



