502 On the Breed of Horses. 



do it by private subscription, or at least they might 

 unite together and rent a large farm in the neighbour- 

 hood of the capital, for the purpose of making useful 

 experiments. If such a farm were well managed, the 

 produce of it would be more than sufficient to pay all 

 the expenses attending it. And if the grounds and fields 

 were laid out with taste ; if good roads for carriages 

 and for those who ride on horsback were made round 

 it, and between all the fields ; if the stables were ele- 

 gantly fitted up, filled with beautiful cattle, kept per- 

 fectly clean and neat ; and if a handsome inn were 

 erected near the buildings of the farm, where those 

 who visited it might be furnished with refreshment, 

 it would soon become a place of public resort ; and 

 improvements in agriculture would become a fasliic.u- 

 able amusement. The ladies even would take pleasure 

 in viewing from their carriages the busy and most 

 interesting scenes of rural industry, and it would no 

 longer be thought vulgar to understand the mysteries 

 of Ceres. 



Why should not parliament purchase or rent such a 

 farm in the neighbourhood of London, and put it under 

 the direction of the Board of Agriculture ? The expense 

 would be but a mere trifle, if any thing ; and the insti- 

 tution would not only be useful, but extremely interest- 

 ing, and it would be an inexhaustible source of rational 

 and innocent amusement, as well as of improvement to 

 vast numbers of the most respectable inhabitants of this 

 great metropolis. 



In former times, statesmen considered the amusement 

 of the public as an object of considerable importance ; 

 and pains were taken to render the public amusements 

 useful in forming the national character. 



