456 CLASS MAMMALIA. 



fit them very eminently for severe service, and they seem 

 to be better adapted to endure the hardships of a cam- 

 paign than ours. The best horses in France are fur- 

 nished by Limousin and Normandy. The first produces 

 very fine saddle-horses, and Normandy both excellent, saddle- 

 horses and capital carriage-horses. The Norman saddle- 

 horses are not so good for hunting as the Limousin, but 

 they are better for military uses, and much stronger. The 

 Norr»an Horses have, it must be observed, been very much 

 intermixed, especially with ours. Franche-Comte and the 

 Boulonnois produce very good draught-horses. Auvergne, 

 Poitou, and Burgundy, very excellent poney-hacks. Rou- 

 sillon, Bugey, Foret, the countries of Auch, Navarre, 

 Bretagne, &c, also produce good saddle-horses, but in less 

 estimation than those of Limousin and Normandy. 



England is without contradiction the country of the whole 

 world, in which the art of.breeding and educating horses is 

 carried to the utmost pitch of nicety and refinement. This 

 refinement however, has been pushed to an excess among 

 us, the beneficial result of which, as to the species of horses 

 in general, may well be questioned. We have devoted our- 

 selves, in a peculiar manner, above all other nations to the 

 production of one quality in our horses, and that is speed. 

 In this particular we have completely succeeded, and the 

 English Racer, never has, and probably never can be 

 equalled. It is observable, that the same quality is the 

 principal desideratum in almost all our other breeds, the 

 heavy cart-horses excepted. The necessity of rapid inter- 

 communication among us, and our ardent ambition to 

 facilitate this purpose as much as possible, have been 

 among other causes, greatly productive of the cultivation 

 of this quality in our horses. The rapidity with which 

 our mails and public coaches fly from one end of this island 

 to the other, surpasses all that the world has ever seen in 

 this kind, and equals everything that fable or romance has 



