134 THE POCKET AND THE STUD. 



of weather, I think them quite necessary. To in- 

 stance, I would not indiscriminately give them to 

 four horses going over a four-mile galloping stage, 

 which they might be allowed only fifteen minutes 

 to do it in : but over a twelve or fourteen-mile 

 stage the thing is different. Here they want 

 something, in stable phrase, to " stand by them : " 

 their work is slow, but it is a long draw on the 

 animal spirits and powers, and sheer bodily 

 strength and stamina are wanted. Champagne, 

 could they afford to drink it, would be a pleasing 

 and efficacious exhilarator to men in training for 

 a quarter- of-a-mile race; but the coal-porter (or 

 whatever they call him), with a barge-load of coals 

 to carry into store, wants Barclay and Perkins's 

 strongest double stout to support his continued 

 Herculean labour. To hunters facing, as they 

 formerly did, cold early mornings, and then kill- 

 ing their fox by hunting him down, beans were 

 quite necessary to help them from a dozen to 

 twenty miles home again., But now, when we 

 courteously wait till the sun is near his meridian 

 before we disturb our fox, and then do not give 

 him a chance of getting us twenty miles from 

 home, they are by no means necessary. Such 

 horses as, from delicacy of constitution, are apt to 

 pass off their food quickly, require them ; and they 

 are of great benefit, in a general way, to old liorses, 

 whose blood flows more languidly than that of 



