128 HEAVY WEIGHTS WANT LIGHT HEARTS. 



steady one for any purpose but a shooting pony, and 

 as I never slioot, I never wanted one. A very hot 

 horse in hot weather is certainly anything but plea- 

 sant ; but of the two I had rather be kept in a com- 

 fortable warm perspiration by a hasty horse than in a 

 cold one by a sluggish brute. Of all men, heavy 

 weights require a cheerful light-hearted hack. Such 

 horses are very seldom unsafe. If they make a mis- 

 take, they are all alive and right in a moment. The 

 slug, if he does the same thing, I suppose con- 

 siders it as a dispensation of Providence that he is 

 to go down, and that it would be sinful to resist it ; 

 so down he goes, carrying the marks of his piety 

 through life. Est modus in rebus applies as well to 

 horses as it does to things in general. I may like 

 horses with a little more of the curry-powder in their 

 composition than the generality of persons do : I hold 

 it a great improvement to most dishes ; so I think it 

 to most horses ; and so far as temper goes, I am quite 

 clear the light-hearted horse is less to be feared from 

 his volatility than the other is from his sluggishness ; 

 for the latter, being made to do that against his incli- 

 nation which the other does willingly, is sure to be 

 put out of temper ; and then such a gentleman can be 

 as alert as any of them, and is only so when he means 

 mischief. To an infirm person, a nag that will stand 

 at a door for an hour without being held, stand like 

 a post on being mounted, and go something like one 

 afterwards, may be a desirable acquisition — this is 

 " a Cob." 



The appellation of light-hearted horses reminds me 

 of once driving a friend in my buggy with a fastish 

 one I then had, and one, which, though I never tried 

 him, would I am quite clear not stand at doors with- 



