178' THE STUD. 



her; she found a very sensible and handsome 

 fellow that not only loved, but married her. I 

 wish my reader as amiable a companion. 



I have in other things that I have written 

 mentioned my having passed several years in Ire- 

 land, where many hundred horses passed through 

 my hands every year. This made me pretty inti- 

 mately acquainted with Irish horses. These have, 

 comparatively with English ones, generally sus- 

 picious sinister looking countenances — contracted 

 and lowering brows ; and no man acquainted with 

 the animals of both countries can doubt but that 

 Irish horses have worse tempers than English 

 ones. This peculiarity of countenance in the 

 Irish horse, no doubt proceeded from breed ; for I 

 have remarked that lately it has as much improved 

 as has his general shape and make. A few years 

 since an Irish horse could be recognised anionic 

 fifty English ones; but the three cornered made 

 ones are now seldom seen, and as fine level horses 

 come from Ireland as the most fastidious could 

 wish to see. 



Tracing back, as we can do, the origin of the 

 thoroughbred horse to a cross with the Arab, 

 whose heads are deer-like in formation, we might 

 naturally enough expect to find all race- horses 

 with small heads. This is, however, by no means 

 always, though general!}^, the case. Eclipse had 

 by no means a beautiful head. Dick Andrews, 



