THE WALK. 139 



pace being properly executed when we see form that we cannot 

 help admiring. It would be, indeed, a perfection in this branch of 

 our art, could we deduce action from form : although we may ven- 

 ture to decry what cannot fail to perform ill, we cannot always 

 predict what will act well ; and one reason why we cannot is found 

 in the circumstance of the physical powers requiring a savoir-faire, 

 which, being derived from vitality, is without the pale of our calcu- 

 lation. Notwithstanding, we shall always do well to " observe," 

 with Solleysell, before a horse is put in motion, " if he be right 

 planted upon his limbs ; because upon the right or wrong posturing* 

 of a horse, when he is standing still, doth depend, not wholly, but 

 in part, his good or bad going and carriage." In other words, a 

 horse naturally — and not by trick or art shewn — standing well, is 

 not likely to perform ill. 



We now come to the question, what constitutes good walking J 

 " For a horse to walk well," says our excellent authority, old 

 and venerable Solleysell, " his steps should be quick" — he should 

 " make two steps with his feet in the space that many horses make 

 one." — "The four adverbs, LIGHTLY, SURELY, QUICKLY, EASILY, 

 express all the most nice and curious can desire in a horse's 

 walk." In this quaint description how much truth and nature 

 sparkle forth ! What reader that does not in it discover the light- 

 some, nimble, nodding hackney, catching up his foot, quickly and 

 gracefully twirling it in the air, and afterwards putting it fairly, 

 flatly, and firmly down upon the ground ; " beating," as Adamst 

 says, with his feet as he goes along, " one, two, three, four," 

 and with that regularity and decidedness that to the ear of the 

 experienced horseman they tell " a music" he alone knows the 

 sound of. Every man conversant with horses recognizes this walk 

 of the hackney the moment he beholds it — there is no mistaking 

 it ; and the same as soon discovers the indifferent or bad icalker. 



* In the translation of Solleysell's work by Sir W. Hope, this (which in the 

 original French is camper) is rendered camping : an un-English expression, 

 and one that means — if it means any thing — the stretching out of a horse as 

 in the act of staling. The signification of the author here, is the posture or 

 position which a horse, left to himself, will assume ; and not any he may be 

 thrown into through the art of the dealer or the cunning of the groom, 



t Analysis of Horsemanship. 



