NAMES FOE HOESES. 21 



call this high-headed brown ? We will mutually have to 

 know all their various cognomens, in order to understand 

 which one we are talking about without circumlocution. 



PUPIL. "Never Mind." No disrespect intended, for 

 this horse is called Never Mind. The nomenclature of 

 horses is something that might be greatly improved. I 

 do not offer this as the result of my efforts in that line, 

 and some other time will explain. We are too much 

 given either to name horses after our acquaintance, until 

 one is at a loss to know whether the biped or quadruped 

 is meant, or follow some celebrity till the names are mul- 

 tiplied in the register, and we are equally puzzled to un- 

 derstand which of the many wearing the same title is in- 

 tended. 



PRECEPTOR. As a general thing the English are more 

 happy in the christening of their horses than we, though 

 Lord George Beiitinck, and others, " not near so smart," 

 gave some of them names that were neither appropriate 

 nor poetical, as " All 'round my hat," " Here I go with an 

 eye out." will testify. Yet, in a majority of. cases, their 

 flyers have possessed very good ones, as Harkaway that 

 grand horse, unfortunate in being in the possession of 

 one of the guerrillas of the turf. Beeswing, t'auld mare, 

 whose defeat at Newcastle made strong, sturdy coal 

 miners weep like children ; but they were not often called 

 on to mourn in this way, she winning fifty-one races out 

 of sixty-four starts, a feat or rather succession of them 

 unparalleled in sporting annals ; Touchstone, the progen- 

 itor of hundreds of winners ; West Australian, marking 

 an era by his triple victory, to be repeated by the colt 

 bred under the sunny skies of France. Old Queen Mary's 

 daughter, Blink Bonny, and grandson, Blair Athol, carry 

 you to the blooming heather and bonny braes, where you 

 can smell the perfume of the birk and hawthorn, where 

 the gowan and the modest primrose are peering above the 



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