SIR J. m'adam a breeder of trotters. 139 



a horse is doing his work well in harness that could 

 not carry list, with hounds. Now-a-days, if we get 

 hold of a spiry spindle-shanked canieleopard, we say 

 " he will make a flash harness-horse ;" and so he will, 

 for excepting where our roads are on the rise, when 

 a carriage is once in motion, horses have nothing to 

 do but carry their harness. Horses would have rare 

 berths of it if we were contented now with seven 

 miles an hour. I heard an old gentleman say a few 

 weeks since that he thought we bred more trotters 

 now than formerly. I told him that 1 thought we 

 did look more to pace in the trot than I dared to 

 say they did formerly ; but that, though the world 

 mio-ht not recoo-nise Sir J. M'Adam as a breeder of 

 horses, he had brought out more fast trotters than 

 any man in existence — in fact, many hundreds every 

 year. I saw he did not take my meaning, so said 

 nothing farther : perhaps on my authority he has 

 asserted that Sir James is the most extensive breeder 

 in the world ! 



Whether horses have to carry heavy or light 

 weights, but of course more particularly in the former 

 case, many men run into a great error respecting 

 their saddles. Of all articles of discomfort to a horse, 

 a small saddle is the most so ; and then, to add to 

 this, saddlers, in order to make them look neat, put 

 the least quantity of stuffing possible into the pannel ; 

 so by the time it has been ridden on a few weeks, it 

 becomes as hard as a board. Fashion leads us into 

 many follies. We should consider it looked " slow " to 

 use one of the very sensible saddle-cloths our ancestors 

 hunted with. I should be afraid to sport one myself; 

 but if I was such a man as many I have mentioned 

 as noblemen and crack riders, I can only say I would 



