STAPwTING AND SHYING. 139 



or ceases to alarm : the horse becomes tranquil, 

 and ao-aln moves on. But the horse that shies 

 does not stop, he wheels out of his course, and by 

 avoidinor a cart, s^is:, or barrow throws himself in 

 full contact with an omnibus, which will have 

 rather the best of the collision. Our facetious 

 author of old could figure nothing to his reader to 

 compare with the shock sustained by his obstetric 

 hero on meetins: Obadiah. Mem. he had never 

 tried an omnibus. 



Shying, however, I consider a habit holding 

 out far greater hope of cure than starting ; my 

 reasons for having formed such an opinion, brings 

 both starting and shying into a still more objec- 

 tionable point of view than the usual results of 

 the acts themselves. 



If on being first brought to London a horse 

 shies at carriages, or starts at punch and his ac- 

 companiments, both acts are easily accounted for : 

 he fears danger from collision with the first, and 

 is alarmed or astonished by the appearance of the 

 latter. It is quite natural he should be ; a coun- 

 try girl is frightened by the crowd of carriages in 

 London. A London miss who would stare the 

 fine fellow^s that compose the life guards out of 

 countenance, is frightened to death if, in the 

 country, she meets a few harmless cows, though 

 by far the least dangerous to her. The two girls 

 are alarmed by what they have been unaccustomed 



