THE PROPORTIONS OF THE HORSE. 103 



two inches), with the measure of the scapula, eighteen inches, and 

 the largeness of the chest, are circumstances sufficient for us to 

 come to the conclusion that Eclipse possessed some depth of 

 shoulder ; it was likewise oblique, for its angle of inclination 

 amounted to 70° : in fact, all the fault St. Bel could find with the 

 shoulder appears to have been, that it was " too much loaded ;" 

 a fault, if fault it be, that certainly denotes strength, and one 

 which, I feel no doubt, many racing people would prefer to " a fine 

 shoulder." 



Eclipse's body measured, across its middle, twenty-six inches in 

 depth, and the same in breadth ; consequently he must have pos- 

 sessed " a circular barrel ;" and his girth, around the middle of his 

 body, at least, must have been — taking twenty-six inches for the 

 diameter of the circle — seventy-eight inches ; a circumstance 

 which, unless we take it to have been that of the bare bones, or of 

 a horse drawn or fallen away, certainly presents nothing extraor- 

 dinary. There must have been a remarkable squareness about 

 the body of Eclipse, inasmuch as lines running transversely from 

 the withers to the stifle, and from the summit of the rump to 

 the elbow, proved of equal lengths. What his actual girth was 

 does not appear ; but, according to the depth of his shoulders, it is 

 evident he must have been deep in his chest, or let down in his 

 brisket ; and that his circularity of chest did not prevail in the 

 fore parts, so as to throw his fore limbs wide apart, is certain, from 

 the measurement of the interval between his arms being no more 

 than seven inches. 



The dip in Eclipse's back does not appear to have exceeded 

 much two inches ; it might, according to St. Bel's account, have 

 been three inches ; so that he could not have been a horse that 

 " rose" much in his withers : his height was sixty-six inches, and 

 he measured two heads and twenty parts, or sixty-four inches, in 

 the middle of his back, just posterior to the place of dip; for 

 which I allow (too much, perhaps) an inch, making the amount of 

 dip, as I said before, at the very utmost, three inches. From the 

 place of dip, the line of his back inclined (in a curve) upwards, 

 rising at the summit-point of his quarters to one inch higher than 

 he rose at the withers, from which it very gradually declined, but 

 not with much incurvation, if any, to the tail. Eclipse, therefore, 



