STABLE OPERATIONS. 73 



grooms, head-lads, boys, strappers, ostlers, carters, and many- 

 more of smaller note. Taken altogether, they form a clas* 

 which can not be easily described. Some of them are very 

 decent men, filling their station with respectability ; and often 

 at the close of a long and useful servitude, receiving the appro- 

 bation and reward which their conduct deserves. Some are 

 humane to their horses, dutiful, careful, and vigilant ; many 

 know their business well, and are able to teach it so admira- 

 bly, that I have often thought it a pity there should be no 

 school where these men might practically instruct others. 



In our books it has been too long and too much the custom 

 to speak of stablemen as if they were all alike ; as if they 

 were all ignorant, and something worse than ignorant. Their 

 very employment has been treated with contempt by men from 

 whom something better might be expected. There is surely 

 nothing degrading in tending the horse whether well or sick. 

 To throw odium on the employment, is to deprive the horse 

 of many men whose services might make his life more tol- 

 erable ; and to degrade all. because a few deserve degrada- 

 tion, is work fit only for a fool. Society, composed as it is 

 of so much pride, and folly, and ignorance, will continue to 

 do this, and to associate the duty with the men who perform 

 it. But in the solitude of his study a writer ought to be more 

 precise. His wisdom is not of much worth if he mingle it 

 with the dogmas of those to whom the distinctions of pride 

 and pomp are more than the distinctions of truth. 



It depends upon the man himself. There is no reason why 

 he should not be respectable and respected. He fills a useful 

 place in society. There are many in it shrewd and intelligent 

 above their station. 



But then there is much to be said on the other side. The 

 great fault of stablemen in general is want of skill. Only a 

 few have all the qualifications their work demands. Some are 

 inexperienced, perfectly unacquainted with their duties ; some 

 are stupid, awkward, inexpert, incapable of learning anything ; 

 some are lazy, dirty, shuffling ragamuffins, useless as weeds, 

 and more pernicious ; some are abominably ill-tempered, 

 cruel, and even ferocious, frequently laming the horses, over- 

 driving, or abusing them in a variety of ways ; some are dis- 

 honest, pilfering and selling the provender ; some are tipplers ; 

 a great many are altogether given over to drunkenness ; some 

 are so mightily puffed up with a notion of their own wisdom 

 and abilities, that there is no bearing with them. These are 

 always intractable. Directions are of no use to them. They 



7 



