444 THE DOMESTIC ASS. 



of the ass in Britain as early as the time of King Ethelred 

 (866872), and at a later period in the reign of Henry III. 

 But from either disuse or some fatality, the ass was entirely 

 lost among us during the reign of Queen Elizabeth. Hollinshed 

 informs us, that in his time " our lande did yeelde no asses 5" 

 and in Johnson's Relations of the Most Famous Kingdoms (1611, 

 p. 40), it is stated that England " bringeth not forth mules nor 

 asses, but of horse infinite proportions." It was probably during 

 the reign of James I. that the ass was introduced into England 

 for the second time 5 for during his sovereignty we renewed 

 our intercourse with Spain, in which country the animal is in 

 general use and great perfection. 



It has been often said and justly, that we know less of the 

 natural history of those animals which are our most constant 

 companions than those which are wild and afar off. But this 

 is easily accounted for, from the obvious facts that these 

 animals, having long since exchanged a life of independence in 

 a state of nature for one of servitude in an artificial state, 

 retain consequently but an imperfect notion of their proper 

 habits. Can we find in the comparatively miserable hackney, 

 that acuteness and constant use of all the senses which the 

 free, the fleet, and spirited horse of the plains still displays ? 

 The latter must use all its faculties in supplying its wants, and 

 exert all its energies and cunning to maintain its freedom ; but 

 all the powers of the hackney are chiefly directed to pull a 

 lumbering four-wheeled coach about here and there, and at 

 other times must remain stock still on a coach-stand behind 

 its fellows, all with nose-bags full of food attached to their 

 muzzles. Such an animal has probably no idea of living 

 in a herd with a leader at the head : it never dreams of the 

 sandy plains, or of any diet richer than hay and oats. So 

 it is with the poor domestic ass. What can we pretend to 

 know of an animal that we hardly ever see in good condition 

 or good spirits. Denounced as obstinate and stupid, its 

 very name made a synonyme for a blockhead, it is cudgelled 



