124 THE HORSE. 



use of trotting horses has declined in proportion to the improve- 

 ment of the higli-roads, which has long since dispensed with the 

 necessity of travelling on horseback, and even in private vehi- 

 cles, through the superiority of posting and of the rapid mail 

 and stage travelling, in the first instance, and of railroad con- 

 veyance, in the second. 



The use of light one-horse vehicles, in the country, and even 

 in towns, with the exception of private cabriolets and public 

 cabs, in London and the great cities, never very general — owing 

 partly to the tax on pleasure-carriages, partly to other causes, 

 on wliich I shall touch hereafter — has decreased amazingly in 

 recent years ; as much, perhaps, or more than it has increased 

 in America. 



It is not diflficult to understand the reason of this ; nor would 

 it be dangerous to prophesy that, in England, the trotting-horse 

 will never become generally popular, as it is in America ; in a 

 word, that he will never be kept to any extent, except by per- 

 sons of great wealth ; who, capable of any expense, may choose, 

 in addition to a full stud of hunters and general horses for gen- 

 eral purposes, to keep a flying trotter or two, for the name of the 

 thing ; or by those who intend to make a gain of them, by 

 matching, as turf-men do of their race-horses. 



The reasons, for this state of things, are manifold — first, per- 

 haps, one may say, that the spirit of the English equestrian is 

 thoroughly set on the saddle, and not on wheels. I do not think 

 that I ever knew, or heard tell of such a thing, in my life, 

 in England, as of two gentlemen going out to take a drive for 

 pleasure in a light carriage, unless it were fast collegians driving 

 tandem. 



Country gentlemen, of small fortune, indeed, often keep a 

 dogcart or heavy stanhope, as a means of family locomotion, 

 and of paying visits, capable of carrying a week's baggage, and 

 drawn by a great, powerful, ten-mile-an-hour horse, often a 

 worn-out hunter, who has seen better days ; but use, not pleas- 

 ure, is the object, and with that use great speed is incom.patible. 

 So again, a smart tradesman, in a thriving country town or vil- 

 lage, may find his profit in keeping his fast, active nag, to drive 

 his stanhope about for oi-ders, and on Sunday evenings to give 

 his pretty wife a country jaunt or airing. 



