SINGEING. 139 



Now it might be expected that if man undertook to 

 interfere with this provision, he would, in accordance 

 with the spirit and meaning of the act by which it had 

 been decreed, extend its principle by relieving the horse 

 of a portion of his covering during the excessive heat 

 of summer, and by bestowing upon him a little extra 

 warmth in winter ; whereas, by the operation about to 

 be described, he makes the animal's cold weather coat 

 infinitely less able to resist cold tha that purposely 

 created for sunshine only. 



About fifty years ago, during the Peninsular war, it 

 was observed that the Spanish muleteers gave to the 

 animals they had charge of great apparent relief by rudely 

 shearing off the hair that covered their bodies ; and on 

 the idea being imported into England, our hunting men, 

 principally at Melton, commenced the practice by " clip- 

 ping," at a cost at first of about five guineas, their 

 hunters. 



This operation, which, in its infancy, occupied four 

 or five days, was succeeded by the practice of shaving, 

 which, in about as many hours, left the animal as bare as 

 the hide of a pig that had just been killed, scalded, and 

 scraped. 



This latter operation, however, was found to be attended 

 with two opposite disadvantages : for, if perpetrated too 

 soon, it required to be repeated, or rather to be succeeded 



