20 STABLE MANUAL AND HORSE DOCTOR 



extraordinary exertion is sometimes required, and he can 

 command it when necessary. At the same time, they are 

 too valuable to be uselessly worn out, and pay better in 

 the long run for the attention bestowed upon them. This 

 has led many into the error of supposing these splendid 

 animals cannot do the work of such as, from want 

 of proper points to command the higher prices, get into 

 the more laborious employments ; and you will hear the 

 owners of these inferior horses constantly remarking on 

 one of these beautiful teams, as not only the pride of the 

 drayman, who beacons them to him like old acquaintances, 

 and which they answer with the sagacity of bipeds, but 

 they are also the pride and admiration of all Englishmen, 

 and the astonishment of most foreigners. 



They were full of astonishment, and could not tell which 

 made the greatest impression, their extreme beauty, vast 

 size, sagacity, or docility, amounting beyond parallel. 

 One gentleman remarked, " I have been over most of the 

 globe, I have seen many of its wonders, but the greatest 

 I ever saw was in London. I saw a brewer's team lowering 

 some butts of beer. The horse that performed this office, 

 without any signal, raised the butts, and returned and 

 lowered the rope ; not a word or sign escaped the man 

 at the top of the hole, who only waited to perform his 

 part as methodically as his four-footed mate did his. 

 Two others were sometimes playing at intervals in apparent 

 converse. The cellaring finished, the horse took his place 

 by the team ; the other loose horse, that had been going 

 wherever he pleased, also came, and was hooked on. The 

 man adjusted his dress, then walked away; the team 

 followed. Not one word was passed, not even a motion 

 of the whip, or any other intimation of what was to be 

 done next." 



He added, he had never seen the same number of men work 

 in such unison with the various changes ; it was wonderful, 

 and if it was not reason, he thought the greater portion of 

 mankind had better give up some part of their reason to learn 

 sagacity from a dray-horse. He continued: "I followed 

 some distance to see how it was that a man who seemed 

 as if he could be crushed at any moment by these monsters, 

 had such control over them. I observed he never touched 

 them. Between carriages where there hardly seemed room 

 enough to squeeze through, he went without touching ; 



