82 THE HORSE AND HIS RIDER. 



ground ? Special inclinations to certain kinds of 

 food, may be constantly traced among different 

 nations. Swine's flesh has been from all times an 

 abomination to the Arabians ; and the aversion of the 

 Jew to pork, wisely confirmed by Divine command, is 

 a striking indication of his Arabian origin. The 

 Germanic nations have always held beef in favour, 

 and they alone know how to prepare it so as to make 

 it savoury and nutritive. In Germany as in England, 

 in Sweden as in Norway and Denmark, the German 

 blood announces itself by this unfailing test. The 

 Roman nations, i. e. the French, the Spaniards, and 

 the Italians have all something in common, in their 

 kitchen as in their language and history. The Tartar 

 princes long domesticated in St. Peterburg, and ac- 

 customed to every Western luxury, still have their 

 feasts of horseflesh, which is dressed in twenty 

 different forms, and which they wash down with the 

 choicest vintages of France and Germany. 



Stow makes no mention of horse-baiting as among 

 the pastimes of the Londoners in former days, and for 

 the honour of our ancestors we could hope that so 

 brutal a sport was seldom witnessed ; but that it was 

 occasionally practised is certain. Ass-baiting, although 

 more common, does not appear to have become very 

 popular ; not probably from any lack of inclination to 



