HEAD! " YOU'RE WANTED." 115 



queens without heads, though u when that this body 

 did contain a spirit " it was a sovereign. My hum- 

 ble observations shall not, however, soar so high, 

 but content themselves by merely alluding to that 

 plebeian sort of head that is necessary for common 

 sporting and riding purposes; and for these, let 

 me assure my readers, more head is required to do 

 the thing well than many may imagine. This leads 

 me to mention an anecdote I once overheard. A 

 wicked young dog of a riding-boy in my stables 

 remarked to a regular chaw-bacon of a fellow who 

 was filling a dung cart, that " no one but a born fool 

 would stand filling a dung cart." " Wouldn't he ?" 

 says Whap straw ; " why there's twice as much room 

 each side of the cart as there is in it, so a born fool 

 would throw two forkfuls each side and one in ! " 

 Now it certainly is not necessary that the calibre of 

 a man's mind should be of extraordinary diameter to 

 fill a dung cart ; still, " sic parvis componere magna 

 solebam" there was a good deal of pith in Whapstraw's 

 remark ; and, if we could so far overcome our amour 

 propre as to apply it to ourselves before we undertake 

 a thing, we should much less frequently find our- 

 selves " nowhere" than we do. 



But to allude to head as it relates to the manage- 

 ment of horses. The first proof of the want of head 

 is exemplified in the breeder : he goes on either 

 making injudicious crosses, or breeds in-and-in till he 

 yearly produces that nondescript sort of animal that 

 we daily see, arid which is not calculated for any one 

 useful purpose. He is made, it is true, to do a some- 

 thing, but he only does that something somehow, and 

 can do nothing well. The same trouble and expense 

 would have produced a really good sort of animal 



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