136 THE CHARGER. 



favourable to such action, and gives lightness, as 

 well as gracefulness, to his movements. 



We cannot imagine any brute animal more likely 

 to insure the gratitude of man than the horse which 

 has borne him in safety throughout even a single 

 campaign ; and it is not to be wondered at its 

 having been made a subject for rebuke to Cato, 

 that he left his charger in Spain, to avoid the ex- 

 pense of bringing him home ; or that it should be 

 recorded in praise of Andromache, that she fed the 

 horses of Hector with her own hand. A case pa- 

 rallel with the first, we would not produce if we 

 could ; but without having recourse to history be- 

 yond the period of our own time, we may set forth 

 a flattering resemblance to the second. The late 

 Duchess of Wellino:ton, durinc: her Grace's resi- 

 dence at Strathfieldsaye, in Hampshire, seldom 

 omitted, for a day, feeding, with her own hands, 

 the favourite charger of her gallant husband. 



The height of a charger should not exceed fifteen 

 hands and a half, horses of that size being more 

 easily set upon their haunches, and also made to 

 turn more readily than taller ones. His colour 

 must depend upon circumstances ; but next to the 

 silver grey, which best displays his trappings, and 

 which, we may presume, w^as the colour of the cele- 

 brated Phallas (the Greeks called a grey horse 

 (paXiog^) bay, black, and chestnut, are the best. 



The Troop-Horse. — A chans^e for the worse has 

 taken place in this description of horse, in several 

 British light dragoon regiments, the effect of which 

 was apparent in the late war. It originated in a 



