50 ON THE STABLES, ETC. 



the day, foiTQ themselves into seats, for noblemen or 

 gentlemen to whom the horses belong, to sit upon ; 

 this they often do, to see their horses brushed over, 

 and when talking to the training groom on business. 

 The boys who sleep in the stables are, of course, those 

 in whom the groom places implicit confidence ; and 

 to be enabled readily to obtain a light in the night in 

 case of accident, a tinder box and matches should be left 

 with them. The boys sleeping here are easily awoke 

 by anything unusual occurring among the horses, and 

 are immediately ready to render assistance to any 

 horse that may be cast, or to tie up any one that may 

 have got loose, which is a thing that sometimes hap- 

 pens. By taking these precautions, accidents are pre- 

 vented, or often remedied at once ; in short, these are 

 precautions which should on no account be neglected, 

 considering the very trifling accidents by which a horse 

 may be prevented from performing his race, the dis- 

 appointment of which might be of very serious con- 

 sequence to the owner. 



I will take the liberty here of dio-ressinoj a little from 

 the subject, merely to state, by way of illustration, an 

 instance which occurred in the same stable in which I 

 was living when a boy. I shall also give a short 

 sketch of the life of a stable boy, to point out to my 

 readers the impropriety of allowing the whole of them 

 to sleep over the stables. 



One morning on the groom'^s entering the stables, 

 the horse I then looked after was found, cast in his 

 stall. How long he had been lying m that situa- 



I 



