200 THE STUD. 



to comparatiTe age, and comparative freshness to 

 age itself. The reader should, therefore, be sa- 

 tisfied he is a very good judge before he selects 

 a very lusty horse, or rejects one in low con- 

 dition : for a spare man playing Falstaff, whose 

 sides we see shake as he walks on the stage, is 

 not less altered when stripped of his stuffed gar- 

 ments, than are some fat horses when stripped of 

 their flesh. The head that looked a fair shaped 

 and sized one, when compared with a high crest 

 and bulky body, when that bulk is gone, looks 

 like a coal-scuttle hano-ino: on the arm of a clothes 

 beatino; horse : the bodv that looks round and 

 plump when fat, if stripped, shows that fat, not 

 rotundity of rib, caused its barrel form, and the 

 ribs may show flat as a gridiron, and, possibly, 

 the back ones not so long. The quantities of 

 warm water, mashes, and bulky food, accustomed 

 to be taken being diminished, and oats and work 

 substituted for it, the carcase to which, probably, 

 the attention of the purchaser had been called, 

 becomes, in front of the hips, about the size of 

 the loins of a monkey ; the boasted crest of the 

 neck, which the buyer was doubtless tempted or 

 requested to feel, becomes soft, shrunken, and 

 flaccid, without more supporting muscles at its 

 side than a dinner knife. Worst of all, as the flesh 

 is gone, verily so is the spirit ; no need of the 

 "who-ho Plavbov " from the dealer ; '•' there stand 



