NAMING HORSES. 121 



owners are remarkable for the skill and good taste 

 they exhibit in this respect. 



While I believe the well-named horses counter- 

 balance the ill-named ones by a largish majority, 

 still there are plenty of the latter character one 

 would wish to see, if it were possible, so far as the 

 names themselves are concerned, erased from the 

 records, for the simple reason that, being inappro- 

 priate and ill-chosen, they offend rather than invoke 

 enthusiasm, and too frequently are as devoid of wit- 

 ticism as they are in one other respect — viz., of 

 polish. 



In the paddock and on the course, how our pleas- 

 ure is marred when we see a beautiful horse with an 

 uncouth and ill-sounding name! And how little 

 there is to excite one's mirth when, floaiing on the 

 breeze, coming, it may be, from the direction of the 

 ring, one hears a babble of inarticulate sounds, 

 caused by persons vainly striving and struggling to 

 enunciate an unpronounceable and unintelligible 

 names! 



Then, in the chapter of accidents, as it were, bow 

 few ill-named horses ever contribute by their deeds 

 anything to leave a mark on the pages of turf his- 

 tory, or, indeed, anything behind them to make the 

 fact of their existence a matter of record in the 

 Stud Book! In the face of things, therefore, there 

 is no encouragement to give a race-horse an ill- 



