A PHILOSOPHER. 85 



them to lay hold of wood should be studiously 

 avoided. The same holds good with regard to the 

 rack, if that is a wooden one. 



I am a great advocate for roomy stalls ; but 

 there is a proper medium here : if too large, horses, 

 finding themselves so much at liberty, are apt to 

 get a habit of rolling; which with impatient 

 animals, sometimes ends in injury, from their 

 struggling to right themselves. Others, on finding 

 themselves thus ham-pered, have the sagacity to 

 lie still : in this case they are generally old 

 offenders. I had one who, when short of work, 

 was constantly found in the morning nearly on 

 his back, with his legs resting against the stand- 

 ing, of course considerably above his head. Here 

 he very philosophically waited till his groom came, 

 who laying hold of the fore and hind legs next the 

 standing, pulled the gentleman over. I often 

 thought he must have been in the West Indies, 

 and learned this mode of resting from the ladies 

 there, who, I believe, however, get themselves to 

 right without assistance. It was remarkable, 

 that this horse never got cast after a good day's 

 work. It was only when idle that he played some 

 pranks, at some time of the night or morning, 

 that got him, as Jonathan says, in *^ a fix." Had 

 he been a valuable horse, I should, of course, have 

 put him in a box ; but I had not one to spare for 

 a forty-pound hack, and he appeared so composed 

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