THE HEAD. 27 



former, cannot fail to attract attention. But there is a very great 

 variety in eyes, and in the expression given by them ; hence one 

 reason for the interminable differences in the countenances of ani- 

 mals. I cannot say, myself, I admire an over-full or exceeding pro- 

 minent eye ; there is a sort of unnatural expression about it which 

 I have often fancied has turned out to amount to — what grooms 

 call — " foolishness," and I have, more than once, imagined such 

 horses to be near-sighted. Opposed to this, we meet with the 

 small, sunken, dark-looking eye, which creates a suspicion about 

 temper, and particularly when an expression of what is called 

 " sourness" is to be observed in it. I have seen several in- 

 stances of viciousness in horses with such eyes, and therefore am 

 I biassed against them ; at the same time I have known horses 

 with such sour, ill-tempered-looking eyes, after having been cured 

 of their vice, turn out the very best of their kind. I remember 

 well a dark chestnut horse my father purchased of Dyson, after 

 he had been rejected by the Artillery as a trooper, at the price of 

 £30 : he had what are called jng-eyes, and a more restive, ill- 

 tempered horse, perhaps, never existed. However, by dint of 

 perseverance in long and daily rides by a bold and fearless horse- 

 man, his rebellious spirit was at length subdued, and ultimately 

 he became quiet and tractable enough " for a child to ride ;" turn- 

 ing out such a hunter as no fence could stop or the longest day 

 tire ; and being sold to Mr. J. Nicholl for £90, who afterwards 

 refused two hundred guineas for him — any price that could be of- 

 fered, in fact — in consequence of his turning out about the very 

 best horse in the Berkeley hunt. 



There is a notion abroad, that a horse who shews " the white 

 of his eye" is inclined to be vicious; and, like most other notions 

 of the sort, this appears to have had some truth for its foundation, 

 though the truth has been somewhat distorted in the deductions. 

 Some — very few — horses shew the white of their eyes naturally*; 

 many do so by a habit of turning their eyes upon any person ap- 

 proaching them, and particularly in their stalls; which glance 



* Animals in general shew only the transparent part of the eye : man and 

 the hog disclose the white of the eye. 



