THE MUZZLE AND THE MARE. 71 



of air, or exhalation of breath at the bottom ; 

 and, further, should a horse rush at the rack or 

 manger, the chance of injuring his teeth or lips 

 (as before mentioned) is very much increased ; and 

 indeed, in one instance, a serious accident had 

 nearly occurred to a man of mine from one of these. 

 I had sent him on to an inn with a favourite mare, 

 in order to meet hounds the next day. He had 

 omitted to take her dressing-muzzle with him 

 (which I rather wondered at, as she had more 

 than once had a grip of him) : he borrowed one 

 of these tin-lined ones : and after dressing her, and 

 letting her down from the rack-chain, he stooped 

 to do somethino; to her fore-lesr. She never njave 

 away a chance on such occasions, and made a 

 dash at the nearest part that presented itself, 

 which happened to be his head : this she struck 

 with the rivet that fastened the tin plate at the 

 bottom, and laid his head open as completely as 

 any Cornish single-stick player could have done, 

 where, in their phrase, to constitute **a head" 

 the blood must "run an inch." So much for tin- 

 lined muzzles, independent of their very common 

 appearance. 



The next sort are those in use in racing stables, 

 made of solid leather both at bottom and also in 

 the part that goes round the nose, with holes 

 punched in every part to admit air. These are 

 somewhat heating to the nose in summer time we 

 F 4 



