HOR 



HOR 



Great abuses having arisen, and many 

 horses having- been stolen, from the facili- 

 ty and safety of disposing of them to 

 those who keep slaughter-houses for 

 horses, some regulations and restrictions 

 seemed absolutely necessary. It was no 

 uncommon thing for horses of great va- 

 lue to be sold for the .purpose of making 

 food for dogs, the thief rather choosing 

 to receive twenty shillings for a stolen 

 horse, without fear or danger of detec- 

 tion, than venture to dispose of him pub- 

 licly,thotigh he might possibly have found 

 a purchaser who would have given as 

 many pounds for him. These considera- 

 tions induced the legislature to pass the 

 act of 26 Geo. III. c. 71, for regulating 

 these slaughter-houses. 



Killing or maiming hprses. Where any 

 person shall, in the night-time, malicious- 

 ly, unlawfully, and wilfully, kill or destroy 

 any horses, sheep, or other cattle, of any 

 person, every such offence shall be ad- 

 judged felony, and the offender shall suf- 

 fer as in the case of felony. 22 and 23 

 Car. II. c. 7. 



Offenders may be transported for seven 

 years, either at the assizes, or at the ses- 

 sions, by three justices of the peace ; one 

 to be of the quorum. 



By the 9 Geo. I. c. 22. commonly called 

 the black act, it is enacted, that if any 

 person shall unlawfully and maliciously 

 kill, maim, or wound, any cattle, every 

 person so offending, being thereof law- 

 fully convicted in any county of Eng- 

 land, shall be adjudged guilty of felony, 

 and shall suffer death, as in cases of felo- 

 ny, without benefit of clergy. But not to 

 work corruption of blood, loss of dower, 

 nor forfeiture of lands or goods. 



Prosecution upon this statute shall, or 

 may, be commenced within three years 

 from the time of the offence committed, 

 but not after. 



If a horse, or other goods, be delivered 

 to an innkeeper, or his servants, he is 

 bound to keep them safely, and restore 

 them when his guest leaves the house. 



If a horse be delivered to an agisting 

 farmer, for the purpose of depasturing in 

 his meadows, he is answerable for the 

 loss of the horse, if it be occasioned by 

 the ordinary neglect of ||imself or his ser- 

 vants. If a man ride to an inn, where his 

 horse has eat, the host may detain the 

 horse till he be satisfied for the eating, 

 and without making any demand. But a 

 horse committed to an inn-keeper can 

 only be detained for his own meat, and 

 not for that of his guest, or any other 

 horse ; for the chattels, in such case, are 



only in the custody of the law for the debt 

 which arises from the thing itself, and not 

 for any other debt due from the same 

 party. By the custom of London and 

 Exeter, if a man commit a horse to an 

 inn-keeper, if he eat out his price, the inn- 

 keeper may take him as his own, upon 

 the reasonable appraisement of four of his 

 neighbours ; which was it seems a cus- 

 tom, arising from the abundance of traffic 

 with strangers, that could not be known 

 so as to be charged with an action. But 

 it hath been holden, though an inn-keep- 

 er in London may, after long keeping, 

 have the horse appraised and sell him, 

 yet, when he has in such case had him 

 appraised, he cannot justify the taking 

 him to himself at the price he was ap- 

 praised at. And this cannot be done at 

 any other place by the common law, un- 

 less there is some special custom. 



HORSE, in naval affairs, a rope reaching 

 from the middle of a yard to its extremi- 

 ties, and depending about two or three 

 feet under the yard, for the sailors to 

 tread on while they are loosings, reefing, 

 or furling the sails, rigging out the stud- 

 ding sail-booms, 8tc. The same word is 

 used for a thick rope extending in a per- 

 pendicular direction near the fore or aft- 

 side of a mast, for the purpose ot hoisting 

 some yard or extending a sail upon it : 

 when before ihe mast, it is used for the 

 square sail, whose yard is attached to the 

 horse by means of a traveller which 

 slides up and down When it is abaft the 

 mast, it is intended for the try -sail of a 

 snow, but it is seldom used in this posi- 

 tion, except in sloops of war that occasion- 

 ally assume the appearance of snows to 

 deceive the enemy. 



HORSE leech. See HIRUDO. 



HORTUS siccus, a dry garden, an ap- 

 pellation given to a collection of speci- 

 mens of plants, carefully dried and pre- 

 served. The value of such a collection is 

 very evident, since a thousand minutiae 

 may be preserved in the well-dried spe- 

 cimens of plants, which the most accurate 

 engraver woald have omitted. We shall, 

 therefore, give some methods of drying 

 and preserving an hortus siccus. Speci- 

 mens ought to be collected when dry, 

 and carried home in a tin box. Plants 

 may be dried by pressing in a box of 

 sand, or with a hot smoothing iron. Each 

 of these has its advantages. If pressure 

 be employed, a botanical press may be 

 procured. The press is made of two 

 smooth boards of hard wood, eighteen 

 inches long, twelve broad, and two thick. 

 Screws must be fixed in each corner with 



