THE HORSE. 193 



The master or groom should attend at every feed- 

 ing time, with an eye to the due quality as well as 

 quantity of corn, and to prevent the stable doctor's 

 from stopping the horse's feet, for the ease and preser- 

 vation of which, soaking in water, either warm or 

 cold, is the best application. It would be a o-reat 

 convenience, whether upon a journey or in the field, 

 were gentlemen's grooms to acquire enough of the 

 shoeing smith's art to fix a shoe, or drive a nail upon 

 one becoming; loose. 



SECTION XXX.— Driving. 



Our Public Stage Work at once, the glory and 

 shame of Britain ! Never, in any age or nation, 

 was, or is there such a spectacle as our light, con- 

 venient, and gallant coaches, drawn at such speed, 

 many of them, by the finest formed, highest condi- 

 tioned, and best bred horses which this country can 

 produce, and completing journeys of such extraordi- 

 nary length in a day, as with foreigners can scarcely 

 obtain belief ! But this, alas, is attained at the ex- 

 pense of such an additional load of animal misery, 

 and at so much risk, and even loss of human limbs 

 and life, that it seems extraordinary, no regret, mode 

 of reform, or effective security have hitherto been 

 thought of, far less attempted. On this subject, I 

 some time since sent a paper to the Sporting Maga- 

 zine, but it arrived too late for insertion ; containino- 

 as it does, my present sentiments on the matter I 

 give a place here to the chief part of it. 



" The fact is proverbial — that which is every 



