London to John O' Groat's. 71 



ever been born unto sorrow, bearing all its life long a 

 weight of abuse and contumely which would break the 

 heart of a less sensitive animal in a single week. From 

 the beginning it has been the poor man's beast of bur- 

 den; and "pity 'tis 'tis true," poor men, in all the 

 generations of human poverty, have been far too prone 

 to harshness of temper and treatment towards the 

 beasts that serve them and share their lot of humble 

 life. The donkey is made a kind of Ishmaelite in the 

 great family of domestic animals. He is made, not 

 born so. He is beaten about the head unmercifully 

 with a heavy stick, and then jeered at for being stupid 

 and obstinate ! just as if any other creature, of four or 

 two legs, would not be stupid after such fierce conges- 

 tion of the brain. His long ears subject him to a more 

 cruel prejudice than ever color engendered in the circle 

 of humanity but just above him. True, he is rather 

 unsymmetrical in form. His head is disproportionately 

 long and large, quite sufficient in these dimensions to 

 fit a camel. He is generally a hollow-backed, pot- 

 bellied creature, about the size of a yearling calf, with 

 ungainly, sloping haunches, and long, coarse hair. 

 But nearly all these deformities come out of the 

 shameful treatment he gets. You occasionally meet 

 one that might hold up its head in any animal so- 

 ciety ; with straight back, symmetrical body and limbs, 



