THE HOUSE. 



for, if the present writer, in the attempt to detect 

 an error, does not himself stumble into one, he, in 

 1773, travelled from Colchester to London, between 

 the hours of eight and four, on the box of the four 

 o'clock coach then lately set up, drawn by four 

 hunting-like horses, in the highest condition, and 

 ready to jump out of their harness. Now, it is not 

 very probable, that Maidstone, still nearer to the 

 metropolis, should be so far behind Colchester in 

 their travelling rate. 



The attempt to grow bread corn enough to suffice 

 our vastly increased and increasing population, has 

 long since caused the discontinuance of various former 

 articles of culture, for which we consequently have 

 become an importing country. Among other imports, 

 that of heavy draught horses from Belgium and from 

 various parts of the continent, has increased greatly 

 of late years ; not as formerly, for the almost only 

 purpose of breeding stock, but for immediate labour. 

 Our military horses, with the exception of a few 

 chargers, are probably, most of them, bred in this 

 country, from continental stallions. A few coach 

 horses are imported for harness; scarcely ever any 

 number of hacks for use, worthy of mention. Ponies, 

 that is to say, those which are small enough to 

 challenge a real title to that name, are obtained in 

 the Scottish Highlands and the Isles; for the breed 

 of those dwarfs of the genus in Wales, with some 

 exceptions, has long since been reduced within very 

 narrow limits on a comparison with former times. 



