36 THE HORSE. 



The clumsy-barrelled, cloddy-sliouldered, round-leg-ged, black family 

 horse, neither a coach nor a dray-horse, but something; between both, as 

 fat as an ox, and, with all his pride and prancing- at first startinj^, not 

 equal to more than six miles an hour, and knocking- up with one hard 

 day's work, is no more seen ; and we have, instead of him, an animal as 

 tall, deep-chested, rising in the withers, slantin<^ in the shoulders, flat 

 in the legs, with even more strength, and with treble the speed. 



There is a great deal of deception, however, even in the best of these 

 improved coach-horses. They prance it nobly through the streets; and 

 they have more work in them than the old clumsy, sluggish breed : but 

 they have not the endurance that could be wished, — and a pair of poor 

 post-horses would, at the end of the second day, beat them hollow. 



The knee-action, and high lifting of the feet in the carriage-horse is 

 deemed an excellence, because it adds to the grandeur of his appearance ; 

 l3ut, as has already been stated, it is necessarily accompanied by much wear 

 and tear of the legs and feet, and this is very soon apparent. 



Tile principal points in the coach-horse are, substance well placed, a 

 deep and well proportioned body, bone under the knee, and sound, 

 open, tough feet. 



The origin of the better kind of coach-horse is the Cleveland Bay, con- 

 fined principally to Yorkshire and Durham, with, perhaps, Lincolnshire 

 on one side, and Northumberland on the other, but difficult to meet with 

 pure in either county. The Cleveland mare is crossed by a three-fourth, 

 or thoroughbred horse of sufficient substance and height, and the produce 

 is the coach-horse most in repute, with his arched crest and high action. 

 From the thoroughbred of sufficient height, but not of so much substance, 

 we obtain the four-in-hand, and superior curricle-horse. 



From less height and more substance we have the hunter and better 

 sort of hackney ; and, from the half-bred, we derive the machineer, the 

 poster, and the common carriage-horse: indeed, Cleveland, and the Vale 

 of Pickering, in the East Riding of Yorkshire, may be considered as the 

 most decided breeding country in England for coach-horses, hunters, 

 and hacknies. The coach-horse is nothing more than z. tall, strong, over- 

 sized hunter. The hackney has many of the qualities of the hunter on a 

 small scale. 



How far we are carrying supposed improvement too far, and sacrificing 

 strength and usefulness to speed, is a question not difficult to resolve. The 

 rage for rapid travelling is the bane of the post-master, the destruction of 

 the horse, and a disgrace to the English character. 



cliulmtr short stages, one thousand four hundred coaches now set out from London ever}' 

 day ; the expense of each of which, with four liorses, cannot be less than two shilUngs 

 and sixpence per mile. 



Hackney coaches first appeared in London in 1625, the first year of the reign of 

 Charles I. : sedan-chairs had been introduced by the Duke of Buckingham six years before. 



Among the numerous benefits arising from the sendees of the horse, and the im- 

 provement of public roads and carriages, is the speedy and regular correspondence by 

 post. The invention of this usefid establishment is ascribed to Cyrus the Great. It 

 was adopted by the Greeks and Romans, It was introduced into France by Louis XI. 

 m 1462, and we first read of it in English history about the year 1')jO, under Ed- 

 ward VI., when post-houses were fstal)lishcd, and horses provided at the rate of one 

 penny per mile. Under Elizabeth a post-master was nominated by government, and 

 under Charles I., in 1G34, the system assumed its present form. Tie charge of 

 postage was then fixed at two pence, if under eighty miles ; four pi;nce between eighty 

 and one hundred and forty ; and six pence if under two hundred and forty miles ; but this 

 charge rapidly increased with the increasing price of horses, and the o'ther expenses of 

 conveyance,, and aftcnvards it was further raised by taxation, like almost everything else. 



