190 HORSES AND ROADS. 



the result of his practice and experience, which 

 does not seem to have taught any one very much, 

 for we find modern writers who quote him shifting 

 out of the question by stating that he had not our 

 modern artificial hard roads to deal with. From his 

 style of writing we may infer that he would have 

 been glad to shake hands with Macadam, or even with 

 a pavior that would extend his stable floors out-of- 

 doors as far as possible. He would not have asked 

 for a steam-roller to smooth down loose stones, 

 because he knew that his horses would prefer them 

 to the soft mire encountered continually when in 

 campaign, at which times they could not always get 

 the benefit of the hard floors, on the use of which in 

 barracks he laid so great stress. 



The universal idea nowadays is that horses must 

 have something ' nice and soft to stand upon ' when 

 they are not at work, and that this something should 

 have smoothness also connected with it ; some people 

 even argue that a stable without straw spread over 

 it in the daytime looks naked and comfortless. This 

 is conventionality. In Spain the best-appointed 

 stables are clean swept by day, and the presence of 

 an odd straw knocking about would be considered 

 slovenliness. Tastes difi'er according to established 

 customs or prevailing fashions ; but the hygiene of 

 the horse should never be sacrificed to such empty 

 and variable things as fashions or appearances of any 

 kind. 



' Herts ' seems unwilling to believe that unshod 

 horses could trot for miles together over roads con- 



