SIMPLE FARE. 121 



and constitution, the hay-fed horse (provided the 

 hay is only twelve months old, and of a sweet 

 and succulent quality) will, at the end of three 

 months, be found the fattest animal. 



To give a lift to the character of really good 

 hay, in point of nourishment, I will mention rather 

 a curious specimen of stable management for many 

 years pursued by a venerable divine, a friend of 

 my father's. He kept his carriage, so had done his 

 ancestors (and judo^ing by the appearance of the 

 old landau, the same had passed through several 

 generations), a horse for his own two-wheeled 

 whatever-you-please-to-call-it (it is a rather long 

 but appropriate name for the article), a horse 

 for his own riding, one for his daughter, and 

 one for each of his two grown-up sons, making a 

 stud of seven working horses, independent of two 

 or three old pensioners, who luxuriated in idleness 

 on bruised oats, bran, and whatever the worthy 

 pastor thought would best suit their old gums 

 and constitution. He had plenty of grass land, but 

 no arable, and from the nature of the soil, and 

 good management in haymaking, the parson had 

 always by him the very sweetest and best hay in 

 the country. On this, and this alone, without a 

 grain of corn, the parson's working horses were 

 all fed. It is true his carriage-horses and his own 

 two never exceeded six miles an hour, but those of 

 his daughter and sons not only did, but frequently 



