312 HORSEMANSHIP. 



suffering as we find it creating, can be considered a 

 proper medium for that purpose, allowing for a 

 moment that such a medium must be found. But 

 has man, who may be considered the delegate of 

 Heaven over inferior creatures, the right thus to 

 speculate upon their endurance of suffering ? We 

 think not ; but of this fact we are certain — There 

 is hardly a more certain token of a cruel disposition 

 than the unnecessary abuse of animals which con- 

 tribute, as the horse specially does, to our advan- 

 tage, convenience, and pleasures ; and even a Pagan 

 has told us that he who smothers a cock, without 

 necessity^ is no less guilty than the man who 

 smothers his father. 



Neither is it a great compliment to this species 

 of horsemanship to show its origin, which is thus 

 given in a work called The Gentlemaiis Recreation^ 

 written nearly two hundred years back : — " But 

 before I enter upon the subject proposed,'' (training 

 of horses) says the author, " I think it convenient 

 to tell you the way our ancestors had of making 

 their matches, and our modern way of deciding 

 wagers ; first, then, the old way of trial was, by 

 running so many train scents after hounds, this 

 beino^ found not so uncertain and more durable 

 than hare-hunting, and the advantage consisted in 

 having the trains laid on earth most suitable to the 

 nature of the horses. Now others choose to hunt 

 the hare till such an hour prefixed, and then to 

 run the wild-goose chase^ which, because it is not 

 known to all huntsmen, I shall explain the use and 

 manner of it. The wild-goose chase received its 



